Two Worlds
by Macabre Kaiser
Summary: Changed the title.  A human with strange powers uses his ability to teleport to get away from it all. He hasn't mastered this ability so he took a detour. Getting knocked out from the strain, he later wakes up to the sound of explosions, and...is that Tails? contains OCs, mainly focuses on Tails.
1. Rude Awakening

Hello and thank you for checking out this story. This is my first story I've written so please bear with me if you find any mistakes or grammar errors. Also, all Sonic characters belong to Sega. Everyone else belongs to me.

**Detour**.

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

Mystic Ruins: 1:28 P.M. Tails POV.

"_I wonder how the Tornado will perform with these upgrades I've installed. I replaced the metal plating with a more durable but lighter alloy, thus increasing its top speed and maneuverability; I built and installed a new engine that I dubbed the "Burst Booster", which creates a short but powerful propulsion or a long steady propulsion, on the base of each wing and under the nose of the plane, a larger salvo of radar jamming chaff and flares, and last but not least, a new laser cannon designed like a minigun. Each of the six barrels can fire a shot at a rapid pace of over 8000 shots a minute or set it to railgun mode, in which the barrels extend out and a seventh barrel in the middle fires a large modified tank round which is super-accelerated by the Chaos Drive currently installed. Man I can't wait to see Eggman's face when he sees thi.."_

Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by my computer's alarm. I go to check and see that it has detected a massive energy spike located at a desert 300 miles from here. _I better call Sonic and Knuckles, this energy reading is big. It might be Eggman, he probably has a few Chaos Emeralds, and he might be using them to power something big…really big! _And with that, I called Sonic and Knuckles and told them to meet me at the location. I then got in the Tornado and took off; maybe I might beat Sonic there with these new upgrades.

* * *

Well I didn't beat Sonic to the location but I can dream can't I? Oh well. I landed the plane and met up with Sonic, energy detector in hand.

"Yo Tails! So what's this all about? I don't see Egghead anywhere around here." Sonic looked a little irritated, probably because there's no action or anything out here.

"My computer picked up a massive energy spike in this area; I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't Eggman and a massive robot that he probably has for you to blow up."

"I was kinda hoping that is was, this was a good excuse to get away from Amy."

I sweatdropped. "She pronounced her undying love to you in the bone-crushing hug manner?"

"How did you know?" Sonic asked, puzzled by how I knew.

"2 things, one, you just told me with that statement and two, well, come on, this is Amy we're talking about."

"Touché. Anyway, is that thing picking up anything now?" He's started to tap his foot impatiently. Typical Sonic.

I checked my radar, the energy seems to be west from where we are standing. "Well the energy reading seems to be coming from that direction, let's go check it out."

"Alright bro, lead the way!"

We ran in the direction of the energy reading until we came across a small crater. The edge of it seemed scorched and the bottom of it had many shards of glass, but the main focus of the crater was what was in it. A person lying there, unmoving, and kneeling next to him was…Knuckles? "How the hell did he get here before us?"

"Never mind that! The more important thing is, is that guy alright?" Sonic exclaimed. I felt pretty dumb after he said this. Both Sonic and I came down and greeted Knuckles. "Is he alright?" I asked, a little scared of what he might say. He turned to us and then looked down at the stranger. He was a wolf with gray fur, a white muzzle similar to mine, white chest fur, somewhat like Shadow's but a little messier, and long hair that was halfway to reaching his tail with bangs that almost covered his face. His tail was gray with a white bushy underside. He was wearing black fingerless gloves with a red metal plate on the back of the hands, his fingers had sharp, white, claws. He was also wearing a black unzipped coat and black boots with red metal plates on the toes and heals. Lastly he was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses.

Knuckles then spoke, confirming my fears. "I checked to see if he was alright, but he wasn't breathing and he has no pulse." I paled at his words, but looking at the stranger more, something doesn't add up. He has no wounds on his body nor does he show signs of dehydration. Not only that, what caused this crater he's in anyway? As I started to try to figure this out, there were loud sounds of engines approaching. Seems like Sonic is going to get the action he wanted after all.

* * *

We climbed out of the shallow crater, Knuckles carrying the body with him (it didn't seem right to just leave it there and not only that, this guy was _heavy!_) only to meet up with at least thirty of Eggman's robots plus a larger, arachnid-type robot with Eggface himself at the controls. Half of the robots were designed to wield not only a long double edged sword in one hand. Their chassis were lightly armored but aerodynamic. The others had a large, round shield with Eggman's logo on it. The robots chassis looked heavily armored and durable.

"Oh hohohoho! My, what a pleasant surprise! Seems like I get an early birthday gift! A new energy source and me, destroying you and your friends!" Eggman exclaimed, albeit a little to happily.

"Oh Eggman, as smart as you are, you overlooked something…" Sonic started.

"And what would that be, rodent?"

"You should know by now that I always blow your stuff up right after you say that you'll destroy me and my friends." Sonic stated with a smug grin. I couldn't help but chuckle at what he said. At this, Eggman instantly turned red out of anger.

"How dare you! GET THEM! I WANT THAT ENERGY SOURCE!" Instantly, the robots, the ones brandishing their swords rushed at us while the ones with the shields focused more on on Knuckles, or so it seemed.

Sonic spindashed through the first wave of Sword bots, each one sporting a large hole in the chest before exploding in a fiery explosion. I was holding my own with my arm cannon, blasting off the swords and rendering them useless. It was difficult for me to aim because the bots were moving pretty fast. Looks like I wasn't the only ones making upgrades. Knuckles was having a harder time with the Shield Bots because he was still carrying the stranger's body, and damn was he heavy! The Shield Bots were tough, really tough. All Knuckles was able to do to them was dent the shields. Another wave of the Sword Bots came at us and Knuckles had to put the body down before he charged at the Shield Bots full force.

We were holding out fairly well but I can't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The bots aren't putting up much of a fight, and some of the shield ones were running _past_ Knuckles and heading for…the stranger's body? "_Why are they going for him?" _I thought as I ran towards their target, blasting at them to keep them at bay. As I got closer to the body, my energy detector started to beep rapidly, I pulled it out and faced the body pointing the device at it. "_The body is giving off a lot of strange energy! Eggman's after the body!" _

"Tails! Behind you!"

I turned at Sonic's words to see a Sword Bot about to bring its blade down on me. Everything seemed to slow down as I stood there in fear as the blade came down, threatening to slice me in half. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end. A few seconds pass and…wait, why am I still alive? I creaked open my eyes only for them to widen in shock. The stranger's body is standing in front of me with his hand above his head, blocking the blade with the metal plate on the back of his hand. Many things ran through my head. "_What just happened?" "He's alive?" "How is that possible?" "Z-Z-ZZOOMMBIEE!" _Just to name a few.

* * *

**3rd**** person POV**

Everyone who witnessed the stranger save Tails was awestricken. No one moved nor said a word. The stranger then lifted his hand, the one blocking the sword, so quickly that the Sword Bot was pushed back about a good ten feet.

Eggman was the first to react. "Get him! He has the energy source!" All the Sword and Shield Bots then charged at the stranger, aiming to capture him.

In a calm but dangerous voice, the stranger spoke. "I don't like being woken up…" Then, Sonic and Knuckles jumped in front of him, facing the charging bots.

"Stay back kid! We'll handle this." Knuckles said as he cracked his namesakes. The Shield Bots ran in front, protecting the Sword bots behind them. Sonic attempted the homing attack only to bounce off the large shields. Knuckles tried to punch through the shields, denting them and pushing them back, but not enough to destroy them. Tails was still standing there in shock from his near death experience and also staring at the stranger, who has his back to him. The stranger, although not visually showing it, was standing there surprised. He found it strange that two talking animals are fighting a bunch of robots. His thoughts were interrupted when he spotted a Sword Bot break off the formation and came straight at him from the right. Tails, noticed this too and was about to warn him, but it was too late. The Sword Bot was already upon him, blade swinging downward, until the whole bot fell next tohim. Tails, for the second time, stood shocked at what just happened. The Sword Bot was laying on the ground, cut clean in half, but what Tails was staring at was what was in the wolf's hand, a large scythe with a dark ruby colored blade. "_W-where did that come from?" _The second Tails finished that thought; more Sword Bots came at the stranger. In many fluid motions, the bots were taken out, either cut in half, or totally dismembered. The wolf then turned to the Shield Bots fighting Sonic and Knuckles.

Sonic and Knuckles were having a hard time with the Shield Bots. They managed to take down a few of them, but they can take a lot of punishment before they went down. Both of them backed off and gained some distance from their slamming attacks to catch their breath. "This is starting to take too long." Sonic panted. "

What, are you going to miss a date with Amy?" Knuckles joked with a sly grin. Sonic only glared at him in response but then grinned himself.

"No, just worried that you'd miss a date with Rouge." It was Knuckles' turn to glare.

"We are not dating!"

"_Sure _you're not."

As the two were having their little quarrel, they failed to notice a Shield Bot coming at them, ready to slam them with its large shield, only to stop dead in its tracks with a scythe protruding from the shield. They both turned to the bot and stared. The wolf casually walked past between them. "Shall we move along?" He stated dryly as he tore his scythe from the unmoving bot, ripping out the shield with it. The shieldless bot tried to move but fell over as its legs were severed as well as its other arm. Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other then jumped into the fray.

One by one, the Shield bots were falling either to the stranger's scythe or the combined attacks of Sonic and Knuckles. Eggman was starting to get more angry and frustrated that he's losing…again. In his anger, he started to fire a salvo of missiles at the trio. Upon seeing the missiles, Sonic began dodging them while Knuckles swiftly grabbed one and redirected it to the others, blowing most of them up in chain reaction of explosions. However, one missile was blasted off course and it was headed straight for Tails! Before anyone could react, the stranger seemed to shimmer before disappearing completely and appeared right in front of Tails, facing the oncoming missile fearlessly. Tails watched as the stranger slammed his free hand into the ground, and what happened next once again made him at a loss for words.

Red energy erupted from the ground around them in the form of glowing red and black tentacles with a faint red wall of energy. The missile collided with the barrier and exploded. Even with the barrier, the force of the explosion knocked Tails off his feet as well as blowing the stranger's sunglasses off his face. He stood up and turned to Tails, making eye contact with him. "Are you alright?" he asked calmly. Tails however didn't hear him; he was too transfixed on the stranger's eyes. His irises were red, and they were _glowing_. Not only that, his left eye had, instead of white, _black_ sclera. "_W-what is he?" _

"Hey kid! Are you alright?" The stranger practically shouted, jolting Tails from his thoughts.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He looked down, picked up the sunglasses, and held them out to the mysterious wolf. "Y-you dropped these."

"Hold on to them for me." And with that he turned to the direction of Eggman's spider bot, and vanished as he did before.

* * *

The explosion from the missile kicked up a lot of dust and sand, obscuring everyone's view of what happened to Tails. Sonic fell to his knees, many emotions going through his head. Shock, despair, guilt, but mostly rage; at what Eggman did to Tails, he's gonna pay for this. Knuckles was showing the same, except he displayed more anger. Their rage only increased as the mad doctor laughed in triumph. "Oh hohoho! One pest down, and two to g—wait, b-but THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" As he yelled this, Sonic and Knuckles turned to look at where Tails had been to see the dust and smoke clearing, revealing Tails, sitting inside a barrier made of red and black energy tendrils, without a scratch! Sonic and Knuckles breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that he's safe. But, where did that stranger go?

"Where…" Eggman started before he was interrupted as a series of explosions that rocked the robot violently, nearly making him smack face-first into the control console. "What the…" The wolf suddenly appeared in front of the cockpit, scythe in hand, staring Eggman down with his eerie eyes. To say that Eggman was freaked out at what he's seeing would be an understatement.

In a calm tone, the wolf spoke, "I suggest bailing out now."

"And why would I do that? I have you right where I want you!"

In one swift motion, the wolf threw his scythe at the head of the robot, its blade buried deep in the metal plating. "This is why." The wolf then vanished and appeared next to Sonic and Knuckles.

"You think that a little scythe will stop my Spider Walker?"

"Yes", the wolf said simply as he lifted a hand in front of him and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the scythe that was impaled in the spider bot's head began to glow brightly. Seeing this, Eggman quickly ejected in his Eggmobile and flew off before the scythe detonated in a large explosion, creating a deep and wide crater. The group could hear Eggman yelling in the distance as he made his escape, "You haven't seen the last of me! I'll get you and your friends! Just you wait!"

"He always says that when we beat him yet he doesn't deliver" Sonic stated to no one in particular with a small laugh. He turned to see the stranger walk up to the barrier around Tails and touched it, bringing it down. Tails promptly got up and handed him his sunglasses. "Here, and thanks again for saving me, Mr. Wolf."

"Mr. ...Wolf?" the stranger asked puzzled, as Sonic and Knuckles joined them.

"Well, we don't know your name and, well, that is what you are, right?" Tails asked.

"What do you mean by…" He stopped and looked at his hand. Claws. He looked himself over. Fur. He touched the top of his head. Big furry ears. Nervously, he looked behind him and saw a large bushy wolf tail. He hadn't noticed his appearance until now because he was focused on the fight. "…..you have got to be kidding me."

**Who is this stranger and where did he come from? More importantly, **_**what**_** is he? Next chapter reveals his identity. By the way, for those of you who don't know, the sclera is the white part of your eyes.**

**Well, that's the first chapter of my first story! Please tell me what you think. No flames please, constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated.**


	2. Q&A

**Sorry for long update, had to deal with going to Ohio to watch the Mushroomhead Halloween concert and then volunteer work.**

**In this chapter, you learn the identity of the mysterious stranger that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles found. Sega characters belong to Sega. Other characters belong to me. Enjoy.**

**Detour**

Chapter 2: Q&A.

3rd Person

"….You have got to be kidding me." The wolf said after he inspected himself.

"What? What's wrong?" Tails asked, more confused than worried. The stranger sighed in frustration as he closed his eyes and ran his clawed fingers through his headfur. "I'll explain later, just, can we get out of this desert?"

"Sure thing, I have a plane nearby, you can explain at my place."

"Thanks." The wolf replied, a little bluntly.

"But first, do you have a name?" It was Knuckles who asked.

"Nero"

* * *

The group were on their way back to Tails' workshop on the Tornado. Sonic and Knuckles were standing on a wing to them self while Nero was in the back seat. Tails had so many questions running through his head. "_Why did he react at himself? How did he do all of those things back there? What's up with his eyes? Where did he get the scythe from?" _But the biggest question right now, "_If he had no pulse then_ _how is he still __alive__?" _Tails shuddered slightly at his previous thought of Nero being a zombie.

"You alright there?" Nero asked the nervous fox. Tails jumped slightly in his seat.

"Uh…uh yeah. I'm fine."

"Oh, okay, you seem a little shaken up over something.""It's nothing. All right we're coming in for a landing"

Tails brought the plane down to his personal runway and took it in to the hangar. Both Tails and Nero jumped out of the plane as well as Sonic and Knuckles. Nero looked around, impressed with all the airplane parts and other planes as Tails led him to his house.

"Make yourself at home" Tails said as he took a seat on the couch next to the blue blur, Knuckles just leaned against a wall, arms crossed. Nero took a seat on a recliner.

"So, before I start…" Nero began, "I'd like to know who I'm explaining myself to."

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog! Fastest thing alive!" Sonic instantly blurted, giving his trade mark grin and thumbs up.

"I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

" And I'm Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of the Master Emerald"

"It's a pleasure to meet you. You already know me, so ask away" Nero said bluntly.

Tails was first to ask. "How about that reaction you gave us after you looked yourself over?" He already had an idea on his answer.

"I'm not normally a wolf like this. I was human…somewhat."

This time Sonic spoke up. "What do you mean by that?"

In response, Nero lifted up a hand and produced a ball of glowing red and black energy. The trio looked at it in awe. "Last time I checked, humans can't do this."

"You can control Chaos energy?"

"Chaos energy?"

"That isn't Chaos energy, Sonic." Knuckles piped up.

"Say what now?"

"I've been around the Master Emerald for practically my entire life, I know what Chaos energy feels like, and that", he pointed at the ball of red energy, "Is not Chaos energy" Knuckles explained.

"Okay, what is it then?" Sonic retorted.

"I call it Kojima energy" Nero started. "My body constantly produces it and I'm able to do many things with it." At this, the ball of energy glowed slightly brighter as it changed shape and solidified into the scythe he had used earlier in the battle with Eggman.

"That explains where that scythe came from" Tails said as he looked on in wonder.

"Yes, I call this ability Forge. I can create a variety of weapons with this energy, but only melee weapons, firearms have too many moving parts." It was Sonic's turn to ask.

"When you saved Tails from that stray missile, did you teleport?"

"No, I didn't. I can teleport, but I can't right now. I took too much mental strain the last time I used it. I was trying to go somewhere to get some alone time, but I ended up in your world. What I did was use an ability I call Shadow Dance. I focus a lot of Kojima energy to my legs which then gives me a massive burst of speed, the energy that surrounds my body bends the light around me, rendering me invisible for the duration. It only lasts about a second, and I can only go so about thirty yards, but I'm sure Sonic can do something like that. Also, I can't use this ability in quick succession without giving me a massive headache." Nero explained. Sonic nodded, "and you created that barrier with the same Kojima stuff too right?"

"Yes" Nero answered simply as the scythe disappeared in a red glow. "Any more questions?"

Tails spoke up after a long pause. "When we found you, you weren't breathing, you had no pulse, you should be dead, but here you are. Care to explain that?"

Nero's eyes shifted to the side, contemplating on how he was going to explain this one. It wasn't that he didn't know, it was more on how they'll react if he said it wrong.

"Well?" Sonic was getting impatient again.

"You remember I said that my body produces Kojima constantly, right?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"A lot actually. You see, I-" Nero's explanation was interrupted by a beeping noise coming from under his right sleeve.

Knuckles looked at him strangely. "Is you sleeve beeping?"

Nero just ignored him and pulled off his unzipped trench coat. Now they can fully see Nero, he wasn't wearing a shirt nor pants, like any other male mobian, and he seemed to have a good bit of muscle under his fur. He also had a large, diagonal scar across his chest. Nero himself was a bit confused on why he didn't seem uncomfortable about not wearing anything but gloves and boots. Probably came with the change of form. He looked at the strange gauntlet on his right arm. Upon closer inspection, the gauntlet looked high tech, with buttons and some blinking lights. It was the source of the beeping noise.

"What's that?" Tails asked in wonder and excitement. If it was one thing, Tails always had a curiosity with technology.

Nero didn't look up to the kit, but answered his question. "This is H.A.D.E.S."

"What does it stand for?"

"Holographic Application Directory Entry System, my brother made it for me, and it seems like it's time for my scheduled check up." He explained as he pushed a few buttons. He lifted his arm over his head and the gauntlet split into four parts, each hovering in the air. Then the four parts floated to the ends of the living room until they touched a wall. What happened next made the trio's eyes widen in wonder. The parts projected a room sized hologram, which showed many floating screens, boxes, and words, similar to a desktop. Nero started to walk around the room, literally pushing the holographic objects out of his way, until he came across a blinking holographic panel. He touched it, which then opened and changed the layout of the entire hologram. Instead of random panels and cubes, there were many holographic screens showing vital signs, energy signatures, and a three dimensional view of Nero himself, with arrows pointing on different locations on his body as well as his height, weight, and what appears to be an oscilloscope showing a frequency. Nero pressed a holographic button under his picture labeled "Update" which then created a circle of light to move up and down his body, scanning him. After the scan the stats read the same as before, but something caught Tails' eye. He was looking at an image which showed a silhouette of Nero and a red crystalline gem in the chest cavity.

"You don't have a heart!" He exclaimed.

"So you noticed." Nero replied nonchalantly.

"But how is it possible that you're still alive?"

"Because that's the thing that is keeping me alive"

"_How_ is it keeping you alive?"

"That crystal is constantly generating Kojima energy. It also creates a flow through my circulatory system, making my Kojima charged blood flow throughout my body. The effects of the charged blood has made my cells and tissues not only last longer, but also made my muscles denser, my skin more durable, gives me keener senses and, well now that I have them, my claws harder."

"So that's why you're so heavy, you have denser muscles." Knuckles realized.

"Yes. The energy it produces also removes the need to breathe, unless of course I sustain a good amount of damage."

"What happens when you do?" Tails was interested with this guy and what he can do.

"Since the Kojima energy is keeping my body alive without the use of oxygen, I don't need to breathe, but if I get badly wounded, the energy is directed to the wound to heal it as quickly as possible. During this process, my blood is no longer charged and I start breathing again for oxygen until the wound is healed. When I finish healing, the energy charges my blood again and I stop breathing."

Tails just simply nodded while he processed all that information.

"When you say charged blood," Sonic began, " does that mean your blood glows?" Nero, even though he didn't show it, was amused at his question. In response, he forged a knife and made a clean cut across the palm of his hand. The trio looked on in shock at the glowing red blood trickling out of the cut. "You could've just said yes!" Sonic practically yelled as he watched the glowing blood threaten to drip onto the floor. Nero just let it drip off his hand until it froze in midair. He let more blood drip off his hand into the now small, floating sphere of blood. Everyone excluding the owner of the floating blood, stared at said floating blood, deeply disturbed.

"I once scared the living hell out of an armed robber because he thought I was a hemomancer." Nero stated nonchalantly as he started to mess with his blood.

"A hemomancer?" Sonic and Knuckles asked, still disturbed at the floating globe of blood playing around Nero's hand.

"A mage that has control over blood" Tails explained while he stared at the blood, he started to get a little faint. Nero then willed it back into the open wound before it closed up.

"That….was the most disgusting thing….I have ever seen…in my entire life." Sonic stated bluntly.

"Yeah….I get that a lot." Nero shrugged.

"There's something else you're not telling us." Knuckles said with suspicion in his voice.

"And what makes you think that?" Nero retorted.

"During this entire conversation, you haven't displayed any other emotion."

"You have excellent powers of observation. Yes, I haven't." Nero closed the scanner program and the hologram returned to his desktop with all the random objects. "There's a reason why I haven't been showing any other emotion, but…it's really, _really _complicated." As soon as he finished his sentence, his desktop started to flash red as well as an alarm sounding off. The desktop immediately changed and displayed a few screens with images and video feeds of an invading force consisting of Shield Bots and another model, this time with long lances. They were all heading towards Angel Island.

"They're going for the Master Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Uh, Knux? How could you forget something as important as that?" Sonic asked.

"Well I didn't think Eggman would recover so quickly from the last time we kicked his butt!"

"This is true. He did bounce back pretty quickly" Sonic contemplated.

"Nero, how did you get this information?' Tails wondered.

"When I stood in front of Eggface, or whatever the hell his name is, in his spider walker thing. H.A.D.E.S automatically hacked into his database and downloaded everything off his system including maps and data he collected from you guys. Anyway, I'm sure you guys need to assess this situation, but may I tag along? I don't want to be doing nothing."

"Sure thing! The more the merrier!" Sonic said a little to happily, giving off his trademark grin and thumbs up. Nero nodded and snapped his fingers, the gauntlet pieces flew back onto his arm and he put on his trench coat. Everyone filed out of the house, boarded the Tornado, and flew off to Angel Island, ready to defeat Eggman…for the second time that day.

* * *

During the flight to Angel Island, Nero was answering some more questions that Sonic had for him, even if they were childish ones.

"How old are you?"

"19"

"How about your brother?"

"He's 23"

"What's his name?"

"Alex"

"Does he have the same powers as you?"

"Yes, he's not as strong as I am physically, mentally though, he's freaken crazy."

"How so?"

"He could crush one of Eggman's robots like a soda can with his mind"

"Oh… so, were you born with these powers?"

"No, I wasn't"

"How'd you get 'em then?" Sonic was eager to know more about him.

Nero closed his eyes and shuddered. He did NOT want to answer that one. He was hoping that no one asked him that…ever, but it seems that luck isn't on his side.

Sonic look at him and started tapping his foot impatiently. "Well?"

"You know the phrase that heroes are either born, made, or sometimes built?"

"Well yeah, but that doesn't answer my question."

"Well in my case, I-I…..died the day I got these powers." Nero explained, his voice shaky.

"Wait, WHAT?" Sonic yelled nearly falling off the wing in shock.

"I'll spare you the details so I'll make it short. That crystal you saw on that screen is what killed me, it's also what brought me back to life, and it replaced my organic heart. Now please drop the subject." Nero answered, his eyes glowing brighter through his sunglasses and glaring at Sonic irritably.

Sonic got the picture and backed off the subject. "Alright! Jeez you remind me of Shadow."

"Who?"

"An anti-social faker that claims he's the Ultimate Lifeform."

"I wouldn't mess with him" Tails mentioned.

Nero suddenly became interested with learning more about Shadow. "And why is that?"

"He's pretty powerful, it's not the best idea to pick a fight with him." explained Tails.

"Guys, let's focus on beating Eggman's butt…..again. I don't want him to get his hands on the Master Emerald." Knuckles said, trying to change the subject to the more serious one.

"And you better not try to steal the Master Emerald or I'll remove your face with my fist!" Knuckles warned, looking at Nero.

Nero just turned to him, unfazed by the harsh warning. "And why would I want to steal it? I don't now anything about your world let alone what this Master Emerald can do."

Knuckles gave him the "I'm watching you" sign, and looked forward, seeing the floating island coming into view.

Nero looked on in awe, even though he didn't visibly show it. "The island floats?"

"Yep! All made possible by the Master Emerald." explained Tails as he prepared the Tornado for a landing. They got off the plane and started walking to the Master Emerald shrine.

"So we know that Eggman's forces are coming from the south, and from the information that Nero's computer had, we don't have long before Eggman gets here." Tails explained. When they had reached the shrine, the group noticed that they were missing a person.

"Uh, where's Nero?" Tails asked. He was wondering how Nero disappeared without them noticing. All of a sudden, before the trio started their next thought, they heard the sound of Eggman's forces landing far to the south of the shrine.

"Looks like we have to worry about Nero later, seems like Eggman's here. Let the fun begin!" Sonic exclaimed, running off to the source of the commotion, the other two right behind him.

* * *

Nero was walking towards the expected landing point of Eggman's forces. There was no way he was going to wait for the action to come to him. He soon reached a cliff that had a good view over a large clearing. This particular clearing however, was occupied by Eggman's force of Shield bots, which are named Bucklers and the new models with the lances, named Halberds. Nero began to formulate a plan on how to take out as many robots as quickly as possible. He came up with the perfect idea after a few minutes and dived off the cliff, flipping in midair before landing on the ground with a heavy thud. He then looked behind all the robots, spotting Eggman himself in his eggmobile.

"Oh how lovely! I get to have the Master Emerald and the energy source you possess! Without Sonic and his friends, capturing you will be easy!" Eggman said through a loud speaker.

Nero just stood there, staring blankly at Eggman with a bored expression on his face.

"Are you just gonna sit there and talk, or are you gonna come here and get it? And please don't make it as boring as last time." Nero retorted.

"Oh you insolent little! DESTROY HIM!" Eggman ordered. A wave of Bucklers and Halberds came rushing at Nero, who started to glow red with Kojimic energy.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles arrived at the area where Eggman and his force landed, but stopped near the edge of the forest. They spotted Nero standing in front of the force of Bucklers and Halberds, ready to fight.

"Hold up." Knuckles whispered.

"What? Something wrong?" Tails whispered back, confusion on his face.

"I wanna see what Nero can do, this might be the only time where we can see him give it all he's got. I'm sure he has more abilities than the ones he mentioned, and I'm sure he'll hide some of it from us." Knuckles explained.

"Why would he want to do that?" Tails questioned. He wasn't sure where Knuckles was going with this.

"I don't know, but this is the only way we are going to find out."

"Alright, but I'm giving him five minutes and then I'm jumping in this." Sonic said, a little uneasy about Knuckles' plan. Knuckles began to watch Nero intensely, curious on how Nero will deal with Eggman's robots.

Nero, however, just stood there, covered in a red aura, waiting for the wave of robots. He pocketed his sunglasses, closed his eyes and muttered one word as the robots came within thirty feet of him.

"Vanguard."

* * *

**Review please!**


	3. Seeing Double

**I own nothing but my characters.**

Chapter 3: Seeing Double

"Vanguard."

As soon as that word left his mouth, the aura intensified as eight glowing blades appeared around Nero.

"DragonBlade", he muttered as he grabbed two of the blades, his left hand holding one backhanded. The other six blades floated behind him in a formation the shape of wings. Nero looked up to the advancing force, his eyes glowing completely red. He swung the sword in his right hand, creating a wave of energy at one of the Bucklers, making a large slash in its chassis, destroying it in a fiery explosion.

"One down, thirty-nine to go." Nero stated in a boring tone as the Halberds started to fire lasers from their lances.

"Dragon's Gate", at this command the six swords behind him flew in front of him, blades pointing down and created a barrier in front of him, shielding him from the laser blasts. The barrage of lasers halted after proving ineffective against Nero's barrier. He let out short, shallow breaths as he prepared his next move.

"Fire at will." Nero commanded. Four swords then flew out above the battlefield and each blade began firing Kojimic energy blasts at random targets. The blasts were pretty weak and the robots had to take a few hits to be destroyed, the Bucklers taking more damage to destroy than the Halberds. As the four blades were shooting up a storm, Nero rushed at the other Bucklers, swinging his right sword low, slashing at the legs. In response, the Buckler lowered its shield to guard its legs until one of the two floating swords severed its main CPU cable in the neck, thus powering down the Buckler. Four Halberds rushed at Nero from all sides. Realizing that he's surrounded, Nero dropped the swords he was holding and then swung both his hands around him, causing the four blades to fly and impale the Halberds. He opened his palms and two of the blades came back to his hands as the other two floated behind him. Nero was taking more and more deep and labored breaths. Thirty seven robots fell to Nero's barrage after five minutes of continuous fire and Nero's deadly sword-dance, leaving only a Buckler and a Halberd. Nero, fell to his knees, completely exhausted from his onslaught. All eight swords vanished in a red light. He couldn't even stand up as the Buckler ran up and smacked him with its shield sending him flying into a tree and knocking his sunglasses off his face. Nero tried to stand but only got to his knees, taking more labored breaths. He lifted his head and saw the Halberd charging at him with its lance pointed at him, ready to impale him.

* * *

Sonic got ready to sprint to Nero's rescue when he was stopped my a large spiked mitten.

"Hold up Sonic." Knuckles said calmly.

"What do you mean hold up? He needs our help!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Look closely at his eyes" Knuckles explained. Sonic did so but didn't notice anything.

"Nothing's different! Let go already!"

"Look harder!"

"His left eye…" Tails muttered.

"What?" questioned Sonic.

"It's white…not black."

The Halberd was about to impale Nero through the skull and he knew it, but he looked on, with a bored expression. As the Halberd thrusted its lance at Nero it suddenly stopped. Nero adjusted himself so that he was sitting down and leaning against the tree he previously slammed into.

"Well it's about damn time you woke up!", Nero yelled, irritation in his voice.

The person he was addressing suddenly appeared in front of him, gripping the Halberd's lance with a metal gauntlet. He was almost identical to Nero! The only differences from him to Nero was that his fur color was lighter, his eyes had black sclera and glowing red irises, his long hair was tied in a pony tail save for his bangs, and last but not least, he was smiling. The clothes he was wearing were the same except that his were white, not black.

"Oh come now Nero, you know I need my beauty sleep!", the newcomer said with an amused grin.

"Whatever! Just go finish this up, I'm tired as hell and I personally blame you for it." Nero snapped.

"Alright jeez! You are such a hard ass."

"And you're an immature child. Now would you please finish this pointless little fight off quickly?" Nero said, getting a little ticked off.

"Aww you're no fun." the strange look-alike said as he turned and faced the Halberd.

"Oh hai thar! Is this yours?" he said as he tore off the lance and impaled the Halberd with it. The Halberd slumped down, powered down from the damage. The look-alike then turned to the last Buckler and rushed to attack.

* * *

If it was one thing, Sonic and Tails were both astonished and confused at the same time, except for Knuckles, he was looking on in interest. The trio ran to Nero to check if he was alright.

"Okay now, WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Sonic yelled in his face. "WHO IS THAT?

Nero just sat there, breathing deeply as his healing ability kicked in to heal any major wounds and replenish his exhausted energy.

"Why does that guy look sort of like you, Nero?" Tails asked curiously.

"In order starting with Sonic. One, I just owned most of those robots. Two, I got my ass kicked. Three, you need a mint, your breath reeks of chili." Nero stated, waving his hand in front of his sensitive nose. "In answer to your both of your questions, he's my positive side. His name is Kaiser." He answered bluntly.

"Your…positive side?" They both said more confused than ever.

"Yes, if you can see, he's either always smiling, laughing, cracking jokes, or messing with people. He's such an immature child."

"Hey! Heard that!" Kaiser yelled in the background.

"That was the idea!" Nero yelled back.

"And you better damn well not forget it!" Kaiser yelled back, laughing.

"Anyway, he's the embodiment of all my positive emotions. I'm the embodiment of my negative emotions." Nero explained in between breaths.

"So from what you're saying," Tails began, "that Kaiser, is you?"

"Yes, we're both the same person." Nero stated.

"But how?"

"My brain hurts." Sonic muttered as he rubbed his temples.

"What brain?" Knuckles asked amusingly.

Sonic just glared at him. "Hardy har."

Nero drew a deep breath and began to explain. "In a nutshell, the major side effect of receiving my powers was that my personality was basically torn in half, and this crystal in me created an almost identical clone of me to contain my positive emotions as well as store the majority of the Kojima energy generated." He pointed at Kaiser standing a few yards away. "He's is me, as I am also him, just two parts of the same person."

"After this moment, nothing will ever surprise me again." Tails said.

"And what makes you say that?" Nero asked.

"You. I mean, a being like you shouldn't exist. Everything about you is an impossibility!" Tails exclaimed.

Nero was about to respond until Kaiser appeared right next to the group, looking towards the Buckler in a fighting stance. He wasn't able to destroy it because of its heavy armor, though the robot itself bore many scratches, dents and slashes.

"Hey I thought I told you to make it quick, Kaiser." Nero complained.

"Well you never told me that this thing could take a crap ton of punishment!" Kaiser shot back.

"Fair enough." Nero replied as he stood up, but he hissed in pain, clutching his side as he fell back into a sitting position. "Damn, probably broke a rib or two."

"Oh dear, you seem to be losing your edge Nero!" Kaiser said amusingly.

"I'm holding all the pain so you could at least fight." Nero retorted.

"Don't worry," Knuckles said as he walked past them, "We'll take care of it."

"Aww, but I wanted to blow up the big bad robot!" Kaiser whined with a sad puppy dog face.

Knuckles just stared at him with an "Is this guy for real?" look.

"Uhh, sure if you can handle that thing."

"Yay! I know just the way to do it!" Kaiser exclaimed.

* * *

As Tails watched the scene, a thought came to him.

"_Where's Eggman? Oh no! the Master Emerald!" _Without thinking he ran off to the shrine, Sonic and Knuckles still standing with Nero and Kaiser.

"_I should be able to handle Eggman myself, his main force save for one robot has been destroyed, and he didn't bring a big one so he's just in his Eggmobile." _Tails thought confidently_. _He was sure that he can beat Eggman to the Master Emerald and protect it until Sonic or Knuckles gets there, but until then, he's on his own.

_

* * *

_

"If you think about doing that you better make it quick, I can't hold out that much longer." Nero warned.

"Oh don't worry, quickly is how I do things!" Kaiser gloated. He got into a fighting stance in front of everybody and started to glow.

"Bankai" Kaiser muttered.

"SAY IT RIGHT DUMBASS!" Nero yelled.

"Aww come on Nero! You're such a killjoy!" Kaiser whined.

"And you love ripping stuff off other things don't you!" Nero shot back.

"But it sounds so coool!"

"I don't freaken care!"

"Alright! Fine! Jeez…." Kaiser turned back to the Buckler and assumed a low fighter stance. He started to glow brightly as well as his eyes. "Vanguard!" The glow intensified and engulfed his entire body.

* * *

**Confused? No?...Alright then that means you understand what the hell just happened then! Seems like Nero is out of the fight and everyone else is watching Kaiser have fun. If Nero's Vanguard form was unique, wait till Kaiser unleashes his...**

**Will Tails reach the shrine before Eggman? Will he be able to handle him?**

**Well wait and see.**

**Please review!**


	4. How to Save a Life Part 1

**Sorry for the wait, I had to completely redesign Kaiser's Vanguard before i wrote this chapter. **

**WARNING: This chapter contains blood.**

**It should be obvious that I don't won any characters except my own.

* * *

**

Chapter 4: How To Save a Life. Part 1

The red aura that engulfed Kaiser began to fade, and revealed Kaiser's new form. He was now wearing armor instead of his coat. The armor consisted of an offset body armor, one shoulder guard on his left shoulder, leg plates on his thighs. The most defining physical change was his legs. His boots were gone and his legs were more…feral-like. (more animal-like instead of human like) There were metal plates strapped to the front of his paws. He wore gauntlets with reinforced metal claws over his own claws. Kaiser was in a low fighting stance as his foot claws dug slightly into the ground.

"**Primal**" Kaiser said. His voice changed as well, it sounded more gruff and dangerous.

"Huh, well that's new…" Nero stated. He was a bit surprised with Kaiser's Vanguard. Sonic looked over to Nero.

"What is? You never saw him like this?"

"Well I have seen him go into Vanguard, but he never changed into anything remotely like that."Kaiser began to stare down the Buckler, as if he was waiting for something. The Buckler took one step toward Kaiser and as if on cue, Kaiser struck with great speed, and appeared behind the Buckler, panting heavily. Then suddenly, the Buckler started to violently shake and move erratically as if it was being struck by many unseen forces. Many deep claw marks started to appear on the Buckler's chassis and it finally fell to the ground, it's hull unable to hold itself up any longer.

"Didn't see it coming." Kaiser said triumphantly. He turned to Nero, Sonic, and Knuckles. Knuckles looked at him with a surprised expression, absolutely having no idea what just happened. Sonic and Nero, however, were impressed. Sonic saw exactly how Kaiser pulled off that move. Since Sonic constantly runs at extreme speeds, he had the ability to put his mind into a state of extreme focus. In other words, everything slowed down to him. This is why Sonic has amazing reflexes and the ability to come up with a plan on the spot. Through his eyes, Kaiser's attack was not just one attack, but _several._ Kaiser actually ran back and forth slashing at the Buckler in several places before he stopped behind it. Sonic was impressed with Kaiser's speed, but he knew he could perform the same technique, just a lot longer than Kaiser.

"That was very impressive. I never thought I'd see anyone that fast." Sonic commented as Kaiser approached them.

"Aww thanks! That means a lot coming from the fastest thing alive!" he replied as he was surrounded in the same red aura as before, changing back to his original form. "Okay Nero, you can stop now."After hearing this, Sonic and Knuckles look towards Nero. He was panting and sweating while he clutched his head. He seemed like he was in total pain.

"Good, took you long enough." Nero growled. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Kaiser suddenly cringed in pain and clutched his chest. The same spot where Nero was clutching.

"Damn Nero! This hurts like mad!" Kaiser exclaimed. Sonic and Knuckles were confused again at what was happening.

"Uhh, what's going on?" Knuckles asked.

"Remember that I told you Kaiser is the other half of me?" Nero stated.

"I'm still trying to process that little fact"

"Well, Kaiser and I share pain. I can literally "hold" all the pain so Kaiser doesn't feel a thing, but doing so leaves me unable to fight." Nero explained.

"Yeah and he can be a total jerk face with that ability too." Kaiser said with annoyance.

"How so?"

"He can give me all the pain he's holding and force me to feel it! And I can't do anything about it either!"

"Ouch…" Sonic winced at the thought of something like that.

"Well that's what you get if you annoy the hell out of me!" Nero snapped. He slowly stood up and looked around. Something wasn't right. "Where's Tails?" As if in cue, the sound of roaring engines erupted in the direction of the Master Emerald shrine. The group turned to look to see Eggman escaping with the Master Emerald! Tails was flying after him in his Tornado.

Eggman looked back and glared at his pursuer. "Annoying mutt!" He pressed a few buttons which launched a salvo of missiles at Tails. In response, Tails activated his Burst Boosters, making his evasive maneuvers much easier to perform. As he successfully dodged all the missiles, he smirked as he opened fire using his gatling laser cannon. Eggman was having a tough time evading most of the laser fire and was getting more and more frustrated by the second. He pushed another set of buttons which launched only two missiles at Tails. Seeing this, Tails was confident that he could evade them. Suddenly, in mid flight, the missiles' casings burst open and fired off ten smaller missiles, which spread out and came at the Tornado from all sides. Tails could only look on in horror, realizing that he can't evade any of the missiles. He shut his eyes and braced for impact.

Down on the ground, Sonic looked up with wide eyes, witnessing the Tornado get struck by the missiles. "TAILS!"

* * *

The tornado was badly damaged and was starting to lose altitude, in a desperate attempt save the Master Emerald, he fired his rail gun at the mechanical arm holding the large gem. Tails smirked as he hit his mark, the arm being destroyed and releasing the Master Emerald, but quickly focused on trying to steady the Tornado from crashing nose first into the ground. Knuckles quickly leapt into action and ran towards the Master Emerald as it fell to the ground. He got to it on time and jumped into the air, catching the large gem, and shrunk it down to the size of a Chaos Emerald. As he landed, he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not want to put the Master Emerald back together if it shattered. He then snapped his attention back the Tornado, and ran towards its estimated landing area.

Meanwhile, Sonic was running after the Tornado, scared beyond all reason for his little brother's life. The Tornado crash landed into the forest, the plane being shredded by the trees before it finally stopped. Sonic immediately rushed to the cockpit of what's left of the plane. Sonic became completely pale at what he saw. The cockpit was absolutely torn apart from the crash. What gripped Sonic in absolute horror was the condition of his little brother. Tails had many cuts on his body, his condition wouldn't be that severe had there not been a metal shard sticking out of his belly, and to make things worse, Tails was still awake, tears flowing from his eyes as he stared pleadingly at Sonic. Sonic's mind went blank, he had absolutely no idea what to do.

Knuckles shortly arrived at the crash site closely followed by Nero and Kaiser. Knuckles saw Sonic standing there shaking in front of the cockpit of the shredded Tornado and quickly ran to his side, only to mimic the deathly pale state Sonic was currently in. Nero and Kaiser, soon reached the cockpit and saw Tails' condition. Without hesitation, he gently pushed Sonic and Knuckles out of the way . He then carefully lifted the fox out of the cockpit and carried him away from the wreckage, Sonic and Knuckles quickly following behind. Tails was whimpering from the sight of the amount of blood, _his blood_, all over his body.

"S-sonic!" the wounded fox called, his voice shallow and barely audible. "I-I-I'm scared!" Sonic griped Tails' bloodstained hand, tears freely flowing down his face.

"Come on Tails, stay with me! You're gonna be alright! I promise! Just hang on!."

Nero had many things going through his head at once. He knew the risks but he had to act quickly.

"Tails, I'm really sorry for this." Nero said with sorrow in his voice. Before anyone had a chance to ask why, Nero pulled the metal shard out of Tails, cringing as the fox screamed in sheer agony. Blood started pouring out of the wound, a darker colored red than normal. Nero inwardly cursed, the shard tore through Tails' liver, there is no way he can heal this type of wound. He quickly ran ideas through his head but kept ending up with one solution. It seemed he had no choice.

"Tails, I want you to hold on for a bit longer and trust me." Nero explained. Tails nodded weakly in response. Nero held out his hand and it began to glow bright red, and forged a dagger with a glowing blade. "Sonic, Knuckles, stand back. "

"W-what are you going to do with that?" Sonic asked with fear in his voice. He didn't like where this was going.

Before he knew it, Nero drove the dagger through Tails' chest as large amounts of red energy was channeled from Nero, through the dagger, and into Tails.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" both Sonic and Knuckles yelled in unison. They rushed towards Nero to get him away from Tails, only to be blocked off be a barrier created by Kaiser.

"Get out of our way!" they both yelled as they punched at the barrier.

Nero ignored their yells and continued channel to his energy into Tails. The fox's eyes were wide as his mouth was open with a silent scream. Kaiser began to sway as he gripped his head and began to fade into a soft red aura before it merged with Nero, dropping the barrier. The last fifteen seconds felt like hours before the dagger vanished and Nero fell to the side, unconscious and breathing heavy, labored breaths. Sonic and Knuckles looked at the aftermath in awe. Tails was unconscious, but breathing normally. His wounds had stopped bleeding, as well as the large wound the metal shard caused. Sonic breathed out a huge sigh of relief, tears still running down his face, very happy that Tails was still alive and that he was going to be alright. Without saying a word, Sonic picked up Tails as Knuckles picked up Nero, and carried them to the Master Emerald Shrine, unaware of what exactly Nero did to save Tails' life...

* * *

**Oh snap! Tails is okay but what did Nero do to him?**

**Kaiser: I!...want a cupcake.**

**Nero: Way to ruin the mood Kaiser...¬¬**

**Review!**


	5. How to Save a Life Part 2

**And here's part 2!**

**I seriously believe that I don't own any official characters in this fic except my own.**

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Chapter 5: How to save a life. Part 2

It has been two hours since the Tornado went down, two hours since Tails was mortally wounded, two hours since Nero saved his life. A lot has happened two hours ago, Sonic and Knuckles carried Tails and Nero to a cabin Knuckles had near the shrine. Tails was laid down on a bed while Nero was laid down on the couch. Tails' condition stabilized and he was being tended to by Sonic.

Sonic looked at his little brother and his wounds. He shuddered at the mere thought that just two hours ago, had Nero not have done whatever he did, Tails wouldn't be here. "_Nero…whatever you did, I owe you one." _Sonic thought. He then inspected some of the older bandages and decided to change them. As he removed the first bandage wrap around Tails' arm, something caught him off guard. "_T-that's not possible!" _The deep cut that was there had vanished, as if it was never there. He quickly started to remove the other bandages, and adding more to his shock, all the other cuts, gashes, and even his bruises were gone! _"What did Nero do!"_

* * *

Knuckles was in the living room watching over Nero. He was thinking about what happened earlier, and also trying to figure out what exactly Nero did to Tails to save his life. His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a voice. Knuckles looked up and saw that Nero was talking in his sleep. Knuckles would have found this funny, had it not for what Nero was actually saying, and not only that, he was _crying. _Nero kept repeating the same three words, over and over.

"I'm so sorry…"

* * *

Sonic was astounded. All of Tails' wounds were gone, there is absolutely no way that Tails' could've healed in only two hours. Suddenly, Tails exhaled…and stopped breathing. Sonic looked on in horror, fearing the worst.

"TAILS!"

* * *

Knuckles was a bit surprised. Out of the short amount of time he has known Nero, he never would've thought that Nero was even capable of crying. Yet here he was, crying in his sleep. Knuckles didn't know what to do, should he wake him up? Or let him be? He wasn't good at this kind of stuff anyway.

"TAILS!"

Knuckles immediately jumped out of his seat and rushed over to the bedroom to see Sonic panicking over something.

"What's wrong!"

"It's Tails! H-he stopped breathing!"

"Did you try mouth to mouth?"

"No! I'll try that now!"

Sonic tilted Tails' head up and leaned in, about to place his mouth over his little brother's when suddenly Tails' eyes crept open, only to go wide when he saw Sonic's mouth so close to his.

"SONIC WHAT THE HELL!" Tails yelled. Sonic fell over from being startled and Knuckles couldn't help but laugh. Sonic then stood up, his hand over his chest, and then turned to Tails.

"Tails! You're alright!" Sonic exclaimed as he gave his little brother a hug.

"What happened?" Tails asked. Sonic and Knuckles' expressions changed. They looked down and seemed troubled. They had no idea how to explain this one.

"To begin with, you would've been dead had I not saved your life."

Everyone turned to look towards the doorway and saw Nero standing there with his arms crossed. His eyes were a bit red and puffy, but only Knuckles noticed and knew why.

Tails started to think back, and suddenly a wave of memories rushed back to him. The Tornado going down, the distressed look on Sonic's face, the blood all over his body, and the metal shard sticking out of him. The last thing he remembered before everything went black was pain, massive amounts of pain coursing through every nerve of his body.

"How….how am I still alive?" Tails asked shakily.

"Welcome to the club, bro. That's what we're trying to figure out. So Nero, would you mind explaining?" Sonic stated.

"I'm going to need Kaiser to help me explain this one, and he's still sleeping on the couch." Nero said.

"Wait, how is he still on the couch?" Knuckles asked.

"I forced all my fatigue on him so I could get up and then I separated my self from him. Anyway, Tails, I'm sure you can get up now."

Tails however was a little skeptical, he did just have a near death experience but got off the bed anyway and to his surprise, he felt like he had more energy than before! Nero walked out of the room and everyone followed. They stopped in front of the couch to see a sleeping Kaiser muttering about ordering a dessert and other incoherent things. Everyone was just staring at Kaiser till Nero spoke up.

"Hey Knuckles, does that pillow have goose down feathers?"

"Yeah it does, why do you ask?"

"Those things are comfy…"

Kaiser shifted his head on the pillow and suddenly shot up into a sitting position holding his eye.

"AAAHHAHAHOOOOWWW! GOOSE, WHY DO YOU HURT SO GOOD?" Kaiser yelled hysterically.

"…until that one quill comes through the pillow case and sticks you in the eye." Nero finished.

Everyone shared the same "what the hell" look except Kaiser. After Kaiser calmed down (or as calm as Kaiser normally gets.) He turned and looked at Tails.

"Oh hey Tails! How're feelin! And have your eyes always been glowing like that?" he asked.

Sonic and Knuckles immediately turned to Tails and as Kaiser said, his eyes were glowing a soft blue color. Tails had a look of shock and blinked a few times.

"W-what do you mean _glowing_?" Tails asked nervously.

Sonic scowled at Nero. "What did you do to him?"

Nero just stared blankly at Tails. Then both Nero and Kaiser started to count down.

"Three"

"Two"

"One"

Right after they both said "one" Tails let out a groan and fell to his knees, shutting his eyes while gripping his head. Sonic knelt down to steady him. Knuckles glared at Nero, cracking his fists.

"You have fives seconds to tell me what you did or I'll punch you through the island!"

Nero just stood there, unfazed by the echidna's threat.

"Knuckles it's alright, I'm fine." Tails assured as he stood up. He opened his eyes and looked at everyone. When Sonic and Knuckles made eye contact with Tails, their eyes widened and let out a soft gasp as they finally figured out what Nero did. Tails' eyes was glowing dark blue, one eye with white sclera, the other with black.

* * *

**Okay, I wanna know who saw this coming!**

**Seems like Tails is going through some changes, but you're gonna have to wait to find out what else Tails can do!**

**On a side note, I wanna also know if anyone appreciated that Daniel Tosh reference. I couldn't resist putting that in. :)**

**Review!**


	6. Bravery Comes from Within

**And here's chapter 6! Sorry for the delay. Got caught up with some stuff as well as one hell of a writer's block.**

**Also, text in bold and italics are telepathic thoughts. Text in just italics are just thoughts.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Bravery comes from Within.

"….What are you looking at?" Tails asked uneasily. Sonic and Knuckles couldn't help but stare, jaws open. Knuckles was the first to regain his composure and break the ice.

"I think you should look in a mirror." Knuckles suggested. Tails felt a little uneasy as he walked to the bathroom. Nero just stood there waiting patiently as Kaiser looked towards the direction of the bathroom, an expression on his face as if he's expecting something. He then looked up thoughtfully and then held up three fingers and started counting down. As soon as he reached one, everyone heard a surprised yelp, and Kaiser couldn't help but laugh. Tails walked back into the room, shaking from the surprise as well as confusion.

"N-nero, what d-did you do to m-me?", his mind was racing, all his thoughts were a jumbled mess and he was beginning to lose it. "Why a-are my e-eyes like t-this?" Tails had a scared look in his now mismatched eyes as he looked at Nero.

"I'm sorry, I had no other option." Nero answered as he looked away.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO OTHER OPTION! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!" Tails yelled, his eyes starting to glow brighter.

"IF I HADN'T DONE WHAT I DID, YOU WOULD'VE BEEN DEAD IN THE NEXT THIRTY SECONDS!" Nero yelled back, his own eyes starting to glow bright as well. Tails was a bit frightened, he hadn't expected Nero to yell back at him let alone show as much hostility towards him.

"Yo! We all need to just chill! Tails is alive and the Master Emerald is safe! So everything worked out! Just calm down!" Sonic exclaimed. Both Nero and Tails did as they were told and calmed down a bit, though Tails had a hateful glare towards Nero. The wolf however, was indifferent. After the animosity in the room dissolved, Sonic spoke up to break the silence.

"Now, why are his eyes blue and not red like yours?" Sonic asked.

"It really depends on the person." Nero stated. "There are only two recorded Kojima classes, mine being more physical related. My physical abilities are enhanced, but I can't manipulate Kojima energy as well as my brother can. Sure I can fire energy blasts, but they're weak compared to the other class." Nero continued to explain. "The other class is more mental related. This class can also manipulate Kojima energy to a high degree, like firing high powered beams, create stronger barriers, extreme focus, and other stuff like that." Everyone in the room started to process all this, Tails however, was still hatefully glaring at Nero.

"_Now I'm even more of a freak thanks to him! First it was my tails and now this!" _the kitsune thought.

"_**But he did save your life, and he will more likely teach you how to use this power that's been given to you.**__"_

Tails looked around in surprise.

"Who said that?"

"_**I did.**__"_

Tails started to look frantically for the voice.

"Where are you?"

Everyone in the room except Nero and Kaiser looked at Tails questioningly.

"Uhh, Tails?" Knuckles started. "Who are you talking to?"

"He's talking to himself of course!" Kaiser spoke up cheerfully.

"Wait what?" Sonic was confused…again, and honestly, he was getting kind of annoyed.

"Tails, I need you to come outside with me." Nero said bluntly as he and Kaiser walked out. Tails obliged and walked out as well as Sonic and Knuckles. Outside, Nero was standing alone with his back facing them. "So I take it that you're hearing a voice?" He asked.

Tails looked at him incredulously. "How did you figure that?" Nero just turned around and looked at the fox, his eyes back to their mismatched form.

"Because it happened to me when I got these powers."

"Are you saying that…" Knuckles started.

"Yes. Now, first things first…" Nero looked at Tails straight into his mismatched eyes. "I want you to concentrate on walking _out _of Tails or standing next to him."

Tails looked at him with a confused expression. "_What is he talking about? Walk out of myself?" _Suddenly he felt a slight tingle all over his body as well as a bit of light headedness, leaving him disoriented for a few seconds.

"WHOAH!" Sonic yelled out of surprise, he wasn't prepared for what happened next. Knuckles just let out a small gasp with wide eyes as _another_ Tails walked out of the original Tails, an almost exact duplicate! This Tails, however, had a whitish-gray fur color with white belly, chest, and muzzle fur, black and blue shoes with matching gloves. The most defining feature was his eyes, blue, glowing irises on black sclera. When Tails looked to his side, he jumped and yelped with surprise, not expecting to see a creepier looking version of himself staring at him.

"Very good. Took me a week and a half to figure out how to do that." Nero commented. He looked over the duplicate carefully, reading his expression. "By the looks of it, you're Tails' braver side." Which was believable because the expression the duplicate had was a look of confidence and alertness. Even the way he's standing can give away that he's always on guard.

"That is correct." the duplicate said. His voice was slightly deeper than Tails' and had a somewhat quiet, yet intense tone.

"Now before we begin your training, what should we all call you?" Nero asked. He pushed a few buttons on H.A.D.E.S., removed it from his arm, and set it to the ground. The duplicate started to think as well as Tails, after he recovered from his initial shock. Then, at the same time, they both gave Nero their answer.

"Jericho"

"Huh, I like the name, you came up with it yourself?"

"I like the way it sounded when I first heard it on TV." the duplicate now known as Jericho replied.

"Wait what? When was this?" Tails asked himself.

"Back when you were flipping channels four weeks ago when it was raining. Sonic was sitting next to you in case the weather escalated into a thunderstorm." Jericho replied.

"How did you…?"

"Know about that?" Nero interrupted. "He knows about that because you and Jericho are half of your original mind. You see, when it comes to me, my emotions has been split, Kaiser is the more happy side of me….

"_**While you're the more emo side of me!" **_Kaiser exclaimed, though only Nero could hear it.

"Don't call me emo!" Nero yelled out loud. He looked around to see everyone staring at him. "That never happened." he stated as he sweat-dropped. "Anyway, In your case Tails, your personality has been split and your braver side is what manifested. In either case though, the doppelganger has better access to the subconscious and the memories that are stored there as well as sharing your more current memories." Nero explained.

Tails stood and thought about all this information, Jericho just stood there with a blank expression, while Sonic and Knuckles stood there and tried to process what Nero said. Keyword being _tried_. Nero walked up to Tails and Jericho and held up his left hand.

"Ok, first lesson will be how to project Kojima energy." He said as a small globe of red energy appeared and floated above his hand. "All you have to do is concentrate on the energy flowing through your body and into your hand. Try to gather energy to your hand slowly and keep going until it has no where else to go but out."

Tails nodded and raised up his hand. He started to concentrate on a sphere of energy to float above his hand. As he did this he felt a flow of energy course through him and into his hand. Growing excited, he started to gather energy quicker into his hand. Then his hand started to tremble and he started to feel that he forced too much. Reflexively, he pointed his hand away from him and shut his eyes, fearing that the energy will explode in his hand, not realizing that he's pointing directly at Nero. Nero saw this and quickly reacted as a beam of energy erupted from Tails' hand by forming a small, shield shaped energy barrier around his arm, successfully blocking the misfire. Tails opened his eyes and saw that Nero was holding up an energy shield. He took another look and saw that there were two skid marks on the ground in front of Nero, proof that he was pushed back forcefully.

"Whoah….did I do that?" Tails asked.

Nero dropped his shield and looked at the length of the skid marks he created. "Yes, yes you did. That blast pushed me back about 22 feet, give or take." Tails' ears lowered and gave a sheepish grin.

"S-sorry about that. Heh heh!" Tails scratched the back of his head nervously and inwardly braced himself for Nero's expected scolding.

"No need to apologize, that was awesome." Nero stated with a hint of praise. He looked over at Jericho, who seemed to have become impatient over something. Nero just knew what to do to remedy that. "Hmm, lets skip all the stuff that's new to you for now, I want to see what you can do in a combat situation. I'm sure you know how to fight since you accompany Sonic to kick Eggman's bald face, so let's see what you can do." Nero explained.

As soon as he said this, Tails immediately became nervous. Honestly, he was mostly on the sidelines, rooting Sonic on. Jericho however, had a sly grin on his face. Suddenly Jericho ran forward up to Nero, his fist in the air ready to land a punch to the face. Nero saw this however and sidestepped as Jericho's fist went by his face. Jericho used his momentum and spun, swinging his two tails at the wolf, catching him off guard. Nero, had little time to block the double tail-whip and only got one arm to block the first tail, but not the second. The second tail struck him in the back, sending him forward. Nero brought his other hand out and performed a forward handspring, landing on his feet with his back turned to Jericho. After the recovery, he came face to face with Tails, who had his leg back, about to deliver a fierce kick to his jaw. Nero crossed his arms in front of him to block Tails' leg, until he saw his other foot coming up from the side. Nero brought up one of his arms to block the attack which pushed him back about five feet away from him. When Nero recovered from Tails' snap-kick, he looked up to see how he even pulled it off, only to figure out that Tails balanced on both his namesakes, like a kangaroo would do in those morning cartoons. Nero was impressed, even though he didn't show it. His ears suddenly perked up at hearing footsteps coming from behind him and then suddenly stop. He turned around quickly to meet an airborne Jericho. Nero reacted by bending back to avoid having Jericho's foot connect with his face. His eyes widened when he witnessed Jericho stop in midair, reeling his fist up to deliver a punch to Nero's face. Nero quickly rolled out of the way as Jericho's fist connected with the ground, breaking it up under his attack. He continued to hover there, waiting for Nero's next move.

As the three canines were sparring, Sonic and Knuckles just stood watch, astonished by Tails' new abilities. Sonic began to smile warmly at this while Knuckles just smirked. For Sonic, he was proud of his little brother. He never saw Tails look this confident in a fight before. He also thought about how Tails wouldn't be all alone anymore when he wasn't there, and to add to the fact that he just gained another little brother, even though Jericho and Tails were the same person, but that's beside the point.

Knuckles was watching Tails fight with great interest. Who knew the kid had it in him? And then there's Jericho. He interested Knuckles the most. "_Seems like I may have a sparring partner now." _The guardian thought. He was impressed with Jericho's fighting skill.

Nero jumped back a good distance from Tails and Jericho. "That was impressive. I never realized that you could use both of those tails for combat let alone fly. Oh, and nice use of deception when we began." Nero commented. Tails just scratched the back of his neck with a blush.

"I think I have seen enough. I'm assuming that you learned all this from Sonic and Knuckles, am I right?"

"Well actually, they never taught me how to fight like that." Tails replied. "I just… sorta knew what to do."

Nero looked down in thought. "I think I know how you were able to fight like that." Tails' ears perked up at this. "You probably watched Sonic and Knuckles' fighting style as they fought Eggman from before, my theory is that you subconsciously remembered how they fight and then now with your enhanced mental and physical capabilities, you copied them, of course with your own personal touches." Nero explained.

Tails began to think about it. It did make sense, he's watched Sonic and Knuckles fight many times before. Jericho walked up to Tails while he looked to Nero.

"So when will you start training us on how to use these powers?" Jericho asked.

Straight to the point, Nero liked that. "I would train you now but I feel that I have to put you through a conditioning training first. That way, it will be easier for you to use your powers properly. That way you wouldn't have another misfire or something similar." Nero stated.

"What kind of training?" both foxes asked.

"Give me a day to recover all of my energy and then I'll tell you." Nero bluntly answered. "Oh and another thing…", Tails and Jericho gave him an expecting look. "…you're not going to get a lot of sleep anymore, so I suggest you find something to keep yourself occupied at night."

"Why is that?" Jericho questioned."Because now that your body is constantly charged with energy, you only need about three and a half hours of sleep each night, unless of course your completely exhausted or you used up too much energy."

"Oh, well that's not a problem, more time to work on my projects!" Tails said happily. "And now I can get help from Jericho too!"

"Oh, well I'm glad to hear that."

Sonic walked up to his little brother. "Hey Tails! That was some sweet moves you dished out!"

"Thanks Sonic, I did learn from the best!"

Meanwhile, Knuckles walked up to Jericho. "That's some skill you got there."

"Thank you, I did copy some of your moves after all." Jericho replied.

Knuckles raised an eyebrow at this. "Really? Didn't look like it."

"That's because I added my own personal touches to them." Jericho replied as he chuckled.

"Interesting, maybe we should spar some time."

"I was about to suggest the same thi-" was all Jericho could say before he was interrupted by a loud rustling coming from the edge of the woods. Nero's ears perked up and turned to the direction of the sound. Out from the woods came a beat up Buckler.

"Guess it's on backup power or something." Nero stated blankly while he stared at the barely functional robot. "Kaiser…you didn't kill it enough."

"_**Oh jeez, you don't have to be so critical about it!" **_Kaiser whined in Nero's head.

"Whatever." Nero turned to Jericho. "Oh well, At least I have a target to show you a separation technique."

"Separation technique?" the gray fox questioned.

"When you separate from Tails' mind, you can do it in different ways." Nero then turned to the Buckler, which was attempting to move faster towards Nero, and failing miserably. "Here's one of my favorites, it always catches everyone on guard." Nero just stood there as the Buckler was trying to get to him. Suddenly, Nero's shadow stretched out quickly and _jumped_ out of the ground in a black silhouette of himself, before the shadow came off the form revealing Kaiser, armed with his clawed gauntlets. Kaiser, using his momentum in the air, drove his hand through the Buckler's main processor, thus disabling it for good.

Kaiser then stood up and looked at everyone else while he walked back to Nero. Jericho had an impressed expression on his face. Sonic and Knuckles were in mild shock but quickly smirked.

"That….was pretty cool." Sonic commented.

"Thanks! That's what you get when you watch too many movies." Kaiser replied. "Now Nero, I have something really important to ask."

"Knowing you…it's probably not important." Nero replied dully.

"Since we're stuck here for a while, where are we gonna stay?" Kaiser asked.

Nero held up his hand and was about to snap back at him until he stopped himself. "…Oh snap you're right."

"You could stay at my place." Tails suggested. "That way if I need any questions answered about, well, my new condition, you would be right there."

"Makes sense." Kaiser said.

"Okay then it's settled, we'll stay at your place till we can find a place to live in, and get a job too." Nero concluded. He walked up to where he left H.A.D.E.S and picked it up, He then punched in a few commands and then turned back to the group, satisfied with what he just recently learned. "Hey Tails?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"You should start getting used being in the dark."

"Why is that?"

"Part of the conditioning training."

"Oh…ok." Tails replied in a quiet tone. He had a bad feeling about this training…

* * *

**What kind of training is it? find out next chapter!**

**Chapter 7: A Night at the House of Insanity**


	7. Act 2, Chapter 1: The Dead Walk!

**Thank you all for the story alerts and reviews!**

**Well, this is a short one. Anyway, I'll upload faster this way. Also, I decided to split everything into Acts with their own chapters. So enjoy the first chapter of Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity!**

**Disclaimer: I only own Nero, Kaiser and Jericho.**

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Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity.

Chapter 1: The Dead Walk!

Later that night on Angel Island, the group were in Knuckles' cabin waiting for the island to float closer to land, that way Tails can fly down and fly another plane to pick up Sonic and Nero. As they were waiting, Nero was answering some of Tails' and Sonic's questions about Tails' abilities.

"So will I be able to make weapons like you do?"

"Yes, if you want."

"Can Tails use Telekinesis?"

"Probably."

"Can I stay underwater since I don't need to breath?"

"Sometimes I meditate underwater for hours, so yes, you can."

Tails became a little excited from that answer. He was about to ask another question when he noticed something about Nero, which rose another question.

"Where's Kaiser?"

Nero's ears twitched at the question. _"How the hell did I lose track of Kaiser?" _Suddenly everyone heard a scream followed by many loud gunshots. Everyone rushed to the location of the scream, which happened to be outside near the forest line. As the group arrived they found Kaiser holding two Desert Eagle pistols shooting at a horde of zombies!

"EAT FIFTY CALIBUR LEAD UNDEAD SCUM!" Yelled Nero's doppelganger as he unloaded on the zombies. To say that Kaiser was enjoying himself would be an understatement…a massive understatement. Tails and Sonic were immediately freaking out at the site of the walking dead when something caught their eye. Every time Kaiser took out a zombie, a white number appeared above the zombie's head before they disappeared.

"Huh?" They both blurted at the same time. As they gaped, Nero walked past them and stood next to Kaiser.

"What wave?"

"Twenty-seven!" Kaiser answered/yelled as he turned to his left, turning his guns sideways and started firing very rapidly. "BANG BANGBANGBANGBANG BANG!" (yes, Kaiser is yelling "bang" repeatedly as he unloaded.) A group of zombies came from behind, trying to get Kaiser while he wasn't looking. Suddenly Kaiser threw one pistol up in the air and grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it at the group of zombies before catching his gun. "PINEAPPLE!" The grenade exploded, blowing the group up while sending body parts everywhere as well as a white "500" appearing above the blast area. "WHOOO HOO HAHA! ACTION MOVIE EXPLOSION!" Kaiser yelled maniacally.

Tails and Sonic both had a sweat drop form on the side of their heads as they watched Kaiser unleash hell on the virtual zombies. Knuckles then appeared from the Master Emerald shrine thinking that Eggman is attacking again, but soon paled as he came face to face with an animated corpse staring right back at him. Suddenly, a disembodied, synthetic male voice made an announcement that 3 new players joined the game. Knuckles had no idea what was going on as Kaiser came up to him, deleting the zombie's brains with a baseball bat he pulled out of nowhere, and carried Knuckles to safety while yelling "MUST SAVE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS!" in the process.

It took Knuckles a few seconds to process what Kaiser just yelled over the moaning of the zombies and the gunshots going off. "HEY!"

As more zombies began to materialize from nowhere, Nero ran towards a group of the walking dead and started eviscerating everything in his path with a katana in one hand as well as shooting others with a lever action shotgun in his other hand. As he made a shot, he skillfully flipped the shotgun around his hand using the lever to rack it for another shot. (If you ever played Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, or watched Terminator 2 you would know what I'm talking about.) Nero's skill and finesse with both the shotgun and katana made him seem like he was dancing, all his motions fluid yet deadly.

More and more zombies materialized as a red "28" appeared above everyone present in the game. Nero and Kaiser got ready for the oncoming horde of virtual zombies when suddenly they spotted a figure above the sea of undead.

Jericho was over the horde of zombies in mid back flip when he pulled out several small knives. As he was upside-down over the horde, he let loose all the knives he was holding, creating a rain of twirling knives, each one embedding itself into a zombie's head. Jericho completed his back flip and landed on a clearing in the horde he made earlier. He pulled out two more longer knives and skillfully started to twirl them around his fingers. As zombies came after him, he quickly slashed and beheaded every last walking corpse that came his way. After every last one dropped, Jericho twirled the blades around his fingers again and held them at a non-threatening position, looking at everyone else's shocked expressions. "…..what?"

Kaiser picked up his jaw from the ground and made a huge grin. "That. Was. AWESOME!" Kaiser exclaimed, changing his tone to a high pitch when he said awesome. "You were all like an insane ninja completely freaking out at everything that moved!" Kaiser was grinning like an eight year old child on Christmas morning. Jericho's rampage on the virtual undead carried everyone to the thirtieth wave. At this point Kaiser dropped his guns and got into a low fighting stance. Then he started to glow brightly. "Vanguard!" As he said this, he entered his Primal Vanguard State. Everyone but Nero gave him a confused look. Then, everyone heard vicious roars coming from the edge of the forest. Suddenly, a different form of undead rushed out. These were horribly disfigured and mutated. They had blades attached to long appendages that sprouted from their backs. Their bottom jaws were missing and they had small tentacles flowing from their mouth. (yes, I am describing a Necromorph from Dead Space) All of them started to run towards Kaiser, snarling and roaring as they made their advance. Kaiser just stood there waiting for them. Nero and Jericho backed off, wanting to get out of Kaiser's way. As the first necromorph came within striking distance, Kaiser immediately dodged its downward slash and repeatedly slashed at it using his claws. More necromorphs surrounded Kaiser and tried to get him from all sides. Kaiser however came at one with such ferocity that his attack cut off one of the bladed appendages. He then caught the blade as it fell to the ground and skillfully threw it at one behind him, impaling him to a tree. He repeated this process until every last necromorph fell to his onslaught. Kaiser then snapped his fingers, signaling H.A.D.E.S. to exit the game. Nero and Jericho's weapons disappeared with the corpses on the ground.

* * *

Tails was watching Kaiser tear through the virtual mutants with wide eyes. He wasn't looking at what Kaiser was doing, he was more focused on his eyes. They never moved. Not once. As the last necromorph fell, and the game closing out, he spoke up. "Kaiser?"

Kaiser turned to Tails' direction with a small grin on his face. "Question for me?"

"Y-yeah…."

"Well…?"

"You're blind….aren't you?"

* * *

**Huh...who would've guessed? Next chap with some explanations as well as getting to the main subject of the act! Sorry about the short chapter. Now I'm itching to play Marvel vs Capcom 3. Later! And please review!**


	8. Act 2 Chapter 2: Engage

**Well there is a reason as to why it took me _months_ to update. Long story short, went to basic training for the Air Force and I'm busy with aircraft maintenance training. At least I didn't forget this story! Anywho, This chap was rushed through because I wanted to get to the good part of this act. Well enjoy this chap. Also, I warn you that this chap has some educational stuff in it.**

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Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity.

Chapter 2: Engage.

"My, my, aren't you the observant one?" Kaiser stated while giving Tails a small clap. "Yes, I do go blind when I go into this Vanguard."

"Do you know why you go blind?"

"Well…actually no. I go blind and I get a form of Synesthesia for some reason." Kaiser replied thoughtfully.

"Wait, what's Synesthesia?" Sonic and Knuckles asked at the same time.

"Synesthesia is a mental disorder where sensory receptors are confused with each other. For example, a person with Synesthesia can hear a sound and then they can also see a color. Something weird like that. When I go into Vanguard, different forms of energy that I detect make me see it in different colors, whether it is thermal, Kojimic, electrical, or even sound." Kaiser explained as he returned to normal. Sonic and Tails looked at Kaiser with a bewildered expression. "What? I do and say stupid stuff so people are surprised when I do or say smart things." Kaiser stated with a sly grin followed by a laugh. As he continued to laugh, Nero walked up next to Kaiser and smacked him upside the head.

"OW! HEY MAN WHAT THE HELL?" Kaiser yelled at…well himself.

"One: That laugh is annoying me. Two: Going into Vanguard for a game wasn't necessary and now I have a headache because of it. And Three: You didn't tell me that you were playing that game, I wanted in on the slaughter." Nero retorted. Everyone just had a sweat drop form at this statement. "…..What? Can't a guy have some fun too?"

"Nero, you shouldn't have fun, you're too emo for fun." His doppelganger stated blankly.

"…Call me emo again…and you'll wake up underwater."

"Yeesh, somebody has issues!"

"….whatever." Nero blankly stated as he started to walk off into the woods.

"Hey where are you going?" Kaiser asked as he followed suit.

"Well if you didn't close off our mental link, you would know." Nero shot back. Kaiser looked up and pondered for a few seconds.

"Oh….that's where."

Wondering where the two were going, Tails followed as well as Sonic and Knuckles, Jericho disappearing as he merged with Tails' mind.

A few minutes passed as everyone traversed one of the many forests that Angel Island had. It would've been peaceful, but as long as Kaiser is awake, peace and quiet doesn't exist.

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we-Uuuwaahh! Oooohhh crap a….. TREE! GAH! MY KIDNEY!"

"Thank you Knuckles."

Knuckles just responded by cracking his namesakes. "I really have no idea how you can put up with that".

"Neither can I, and Kaiser is supposed to be me." Nero stated flatly.

Knuckles just shrugged his shoulders and continued on. Sonic however, was getting impatient, as usual, and asked the one question no one else seemed to ask.

"So where are we going?"

Nero stopped and turned his head to face everyone else. "You smell that?"

At this, everyone started to sniff the air, but then shrugged their shoulders, except for Tails. He, on the other hand, was able to smell a light scent of fuel, oil, burnt foliage, and another scent mixed with iron that he couldn't figure out.

As Nero looked at the group pondering about what they are supposed to be smelling, he just moved the bush he was currently in front of and revealed the crash site of Tails' X-Tornado. Everyone that wasn't Nero gave him a confused expression. Nero just simply walked to the wreckage and started looking around.

"So tell me, why are we here?" Sonic asked with the confused expression still plastered on his face.

"I wanted to see if there is anything salvageable," the wolf answered without looking at Sonic. The blue blur just nodded and started to look around for anything that looked like it would still work. Tails joined in and decided to look in the cockpit, or what's left of it anyway. As he approached the cockpit, the scent he wasn't able to identify started to get stronger and stronger. Once he reached the cockpit, he finally realized what it was.

Blood.

_Everywhere_.

Tails began to gag at the site of all the blood that caked the consoles and control panels. What made it worse was the fact that it he knew it was _his_ blood. As Tails began to get woozy from the horrific sight, he failed to notice one thing; his hands were glowing slightly. As he placed one of his hands on the side of the aircraft to keep his balance, his eyes suddenly became blank and glowed in a light solid blue color. Knuckles, Sonic, and Nero looked over to see Tails in a trance with solid glowing teal eyes, but before anyone could check on the kitsune, Tails suddenly snapped out of it and became frantic, looking all around him. Sonic was the first one to reach him and grabbed his shoulders, trying to calm him down.

"Tails! Tails, what's wrong buddy?" asked the concerned hedgehog.

"We're…we're surrounded!" Tails blurted out quickly.

"What so you mean "we're surrounded" and by what?"

As Sonic finished his question, Kaiser all of a sudden flew right past the group and slammed into a tree…again. "Why are there so many trees!" Kaiser yelled as he got up and dusted himself of.

"Well we are in a forest and I do believe that forests tend to have many trees." Nero answered blankly.

"That was a rhetorical question!"

"I know, answering them annoys the hell out of you"

"Oh I'll get back at you for that, but we have company." Kaiser stated as he got into a battle ready stance.

Everyone became more alert as they put their guard up, waiting for whatever it was that was surrounding them. A few moments later, a large wave of Eggman's robots came forth from the tree line. These models were different from the other models they faced before. These models were more streamlined and not as bulky as Eggman's normal robotic designs. These had a laser blade emitter for a left hand and a standard pulse rifle as their right hand. On their shoulders, there were strange antenna-like devices shaped like a venus flytrap. As the group of robots advanced on their intended targets, everyone began to tense up.

"This shouldn't take long to deal with! Doesn't seem like they can take a hit! Sonic chided with a smirk.

Suddenly, the devices on the robot's shoulders began to pulse out energy and bend the light around their chassis, rendering them invisible.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Knuckles shot back with and annoyed glare.

Everyone started to look around warily for their invisible adversaries but couldn't find a trace of them. Suddenly, a barrage of energy blasts erupted from all around them. Upon reflex, Nero brought up a dome of kojima energy around everyone, protecting them of the barrage of energy.

"Well this sucks." Nero said as he struggled to keep the barrier up.

Sonic and Knuckles started to grow frustrated with the fact that they can't really fight what they can't see. Tails however, however was a different story. He was trying to formulate a plan on how to disable the robot's stealth devices until he heard Jericho begin to speak to him in his head.

"_**You know you really should just stop planning everything and just go with the flow**__."_

"_What do you mean by that?"_

"_**Just do what I say and trust me on this.**__"_

Tails just nodded and closed his eyes. His hand started to glow with a light blue aura.

Knuckles and Sonic gave up on figuring out a plan to destroy the stealth robots and turned to Tails to see if he came up with anything. They only became confused at what there were seeing until they became surprised at what happened next.

Tails then placed his glowing hands on the wrecked X-Tornado and the blue aura spread out across the plane's remains. As he did this, he uttered one word.

"Vanguard."

Then, the plane began to rise off the ground, and started to disassemble itself. As all the parts floated a few feet in front of Tails, he made a few hand motions which made a few of the parts twist and form into new components before flying into Tails, attaching to his body, creating a robotic suit. Different parts that made up the main machine guns assembled themselves into an energy blade emitter, which attached to Tails' right arm. The energy shield generator disassembled and reassembled into a smaller version and attached to Tails' left arm. The main jet engines disassembled and then reassembled into two smaller jet boosters and a slightly bigger one that attached to Tail's back. The burst engines did the same and reassembled into six smaller burst engines, four of them integrating themselves into Tails' shoulders and two integrating themselves to the boosters on Tails' back. The gatling gun and rail gun were next. The gatling gun reassembled itself into a smaller design which then attached itself onto Tails' back on the left side near the shoulder with a hinge. The rail gun did the same and attached itself on the same area but on the right side of his back. The process finished off with the X-Tornado's main computer and targeting systems assembling themselves into a head piece that contained a face shield that covered his muzzle and a visor, which promptly attached itself to Tails' head.

As the transformation completed, Sonic and Knuckles looked at the youngest member of their team with wide eyes and bewildered expressions. Tails finally opened his eyes, revealing solid glowing cobalt eyes. Then the robotic suit started to come to life, parts lighting up, moving to different positions, and the boosters warming up. He then spoke, his voice sounding as if he spoke through an intercom.

"**Main system, engaging combat mode**."

* * *

Things just got a whole lot more interesting. And no, Tails did not transform into a robot version of himself.

Can you guess where this particular Vanguard idea came from? If you can, you get a slice of pie...not cake, it's a lie. But also, **I NEED HELP. **I don't have a name for this Vanguard and I need suggestions or I cannot update this story. *le-gasp*

PLEASE REVIEW. Hypno-toad demands it. :3


	9. Act 2 Chapter 3: Mechanical Advantage

**Mmkay, so here is the next chapter. I'm still debating on what to name Tail's new Vanguard. Though I'm leaning towards one, I still want to hear from other's first.**

**Also, the inspiration came from a game series called Armored Core. Anyways, enjoy this short chap!**

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Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity.

Chapter 3: Mechanical Advantage.

"**Main system, engaging combat mode"**,Said the armored fox.

Sonic and Knuckles couldn't believe their eyes. Tails just transformed his prized jet (or what was left of it) into a robotic exoskeleton and is now armed to the teeth! Tails started to walk to the edge of the barrier, his footsteps making heavy thumping noises under his new, increased weight. Nero looked back to see Tails scanning the area around him.

"Okay, that is so not fair." Nero declared.

"**What**?"

"Not even a day and you were able to achieve your Vanguard form. It took me 2 months before I was able to do that."

"**Beginner's luck**?" Tails sheepishly replied.

Nero just gave an exasperated sigh. "Well whatever it is you're gonna do, do it quick, I can't hold this up for long."

With an acknowledged nod, he turned his attention to outside of the barrier.

"_Easier said than done,_ _how am I supposed to find them?_"

"_**Allow me to handle that.**__"_

"_Jericho?"_

"_**Seems like I'm your operating system right now.**__"_

"_Sweet. Now, how can we locate them?"_

"_**Not sure, I'm sure that those stealth bots a generating a lot of heat. Maybe…**__"_

Suddenly, Tails' visor started to glow slightly and shone with a green electro-luminescence as a detailed HUD appeared. A few moments later, the visor started to cycle through different colors, changing into different vision modes. The visor then stopped its cycling, leaving it in a dark blue color, the visor now set to thermal imaging. All around the barrier, the heat signatures that the stealth robots were giving off, were hovering around the group relentlessly firing at them.

"…_**.Well that works.**_"

"**Nero, I need you drop the barrier so I can get out there.**"

"Whatever you say. Just make it quick." Nero stated as he started to breathe heavily.

"Ohh this is gonna be so cool! It's like watching a robot war movie! I need to record this!" Kaiser yelled with glee.

"OR YOU CAN HELP ME KEEP THIS BARRIER UP!" Nero practically screamed.

"You're not nice!"

Nero then let off on the barrier for just a second, but that's all Tails needed to exit the dome. As soon as he stepped foot outside, the boosters on his back came to life and propelled him across the ground, as if he was grinding. The stealth robots suddenly switched target to Tails and began to open fire at him. In response, Tails brought up his left arm and a large, circular energy shield appeared on his arm, deflecting the shots. With the shield still up Tails began to boost around until he got close to a stealth robot. He then brought up his right arm, an energy blade emitting out like an arm blade, and swung with a wide vertical arc, easily slicing through the robot's chassis. The robot then fell to the ground as it dropped its stealth field, cut cleanly in half. Suddenly, a proximity alert flashed on Tails' HUD and he turned his head, seeing another stealth robot about to strike him with its own energy blade. In less than a second, one of the burst boosters integrated in his right shoulder charged and then discharged, propelling him sideways to the left with explosive force. The stealth robot slashed downward to where Tails would have been, but only cut open air. It didn't have another second to react until Tails smashed the robot with a back hand swing, using his energy shield as a battering weapon. As Tails regained his posture after beating down the stealth bot with his shield, another proximity alert flared on his HUD indicating that five more stealth bots were coming at him. In response, Tails deactivated his energy shield, and the Gatling gun attached to his back flipped over his shoulder and now pointed in front of him. Tails smirked as the gun barrels started to spin, letting loose a barrage of bullets, sweeping from his left to his right, completely obliterating the oncoming robots. The gun then stopped spinning, small amounts of smoke seeping from the barrels. The Gatling gun then flipped over his shoulder and rested behind him. He then began to scan the area for more and found the last remaining stealth robot fleeing the scene.

"_It's trying to get back to Eggman!"_

With this thought in mind, he disengaged his laser blade and the rail gun then flipped over his right shoulder. Tails changed his footing to a more stable stance, spikes extending from the soles of his armored boots that dug into the ground for further stability. He took aim for the fleeing robot as a targeting crosshair appeared on his HUD, calculating its velocity, distance, and then locked on. The rail gun then began to charge up a large amount of energy, a ball of light forming at the end of the barrel. As the charge up sequence completed, Tails fired a hyper accelerated 30mm round, the recoil creating a small indent on the ground where he stood. The round easily tore through trees and before the fleeing robot was able to detect the incoming projectile; its head was blown clean off its body, making it fall out of the sky.

"**Boom… headshot." **

The armored fox then stood up, the rail gun folding back behind him, and scanned the area. His scanner didn't pick up any more threats.

"**Mission objective achieved, system switched to normal mode.**" Then, the robotic exoskeleton abruptly detached itself from Tails' body and reverted back to its original form, a pile of airplane parts and weapons. Tails just stood there until he fell down on his rear, tired and with an exhilarated expression on his face.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" the young kit exclaimed as he fell back on to his back, panting slightly. He had a wide grin plastered on his face. Who could blame him? He just wiped out a group of invisible assassination robots under his own power.

Nero dropped the barrier around everyone else and walked towards Tails, panting slightly himself. There were two questions in his half mind right now. How did Tails achieve Vanguard so early? How was he able to fight in it so well?

"That was pretty impressive. I still can't believe that you achieved Vanguard so early."

"I'm still trying to figure it out myself. As for fighting in it, I've used a robotic exoskeleton before."

Nero just stared at Tails with a slightly bewildered look. Tails stared back with a slightly confused look. They were that way for a few seconds before Nero broke the silence.

"Oh god, not another one." The wolf said as he face-palmed in annoyance.

"What?"

"Now I have to always block off my mind!"

"Why?"

"You're a mind hacker."

"…..wha?"

"He means that you can read minds dude." Kaiser stated as he was lying next to Tails on the ground.

Tails jumped at the sudden appearance of Nero's other half. "Gah! Where did you come from?"

"Me? I was always here. Where were you?"

"But you…and he was…but how did you….?"

"Dude… chill pill. Seriously."

"I suggest you don't question it." Nero advised.

Tails merely nodded as he dropped the subject.

"Now as I was saying, you can read minds." Nero stated.

"I can read minds?" Tails replied.

"Is there an echo out here?"

"Is there an echo out here?"

"….Really Kaiser?" Nero shot with an annoyed glare.

"It just happened." Kaiser shot back with a smug look.

Nero just did another face-palm and dragged his hand down his face in annoyance.

* * *

Sorry for the short chap. Hopefully you can figure out the fight scene, kinda bad at writing them out.

Also! I'm currently drawing out a redesign for Kaiser (again). If you want an idea on what Nero or Kaiser look like, check out my profile for the link to my deviantart account. In any case, the main plot of this act will begin in the next chap, as well as more random moments from yours truly.


	10. Act 2 Chapter 4: Welcome to

**Yes, it has been over a year, hasn't it? Well there is an explanation to that. You see, around the same time one year ago, I was shipped off to basic training for the Air Force. Seven months later, I graduate basic and tech school and return home, only to work at the base here for another month. Then after that month, I had to worry about studies for the military to keep my job in it. Now I'm preparing for a 3 month deployment. Now I haven't abandoned this story, this is not done by a long shot. Out of the free time I had, I worked on this story, mainly this chapter bit by bit. Now I present it to you. Hopefully everyone remembers what happened so far. Also, thanks to all that have read my story and those that have left reviews! You're what pushes me to keep writing.**

**Warning: This chapter contains some swearing in it, but then that's why it's rated T. Still feel that I should give you a heads up though. Also, this doesn't have much action in it, let alone any, just a lot of explanations and other stuff like that.**

Disclaimer: The only things that I own in this story are Nero, Kaiser, Jericho, and the concept of Kojima. Everything else belongs to Sega and their respective owners.

Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity

Chapter 4: Welcome to Eastern New Mobotropolis…

It's been a few hours before Angel Island was close enough to the mainland, thankfully, Tail's workshop was nearby. The owner of said workshop then proceeded to fly down and grab one of his other jets to pick up Sonic and Nero. Knuckles, for obvious reasons, had to stay on the island. During the time Tails was retrieving one of his many planes, Nero just sat by the edge of the island, twiddling with HADES, browsing the internet. It was then that Sonic came by and sat next to him.

"So…uh Nero…."

"Can I help you?" The wolf responded, not looking away from what he was doing.

"I just wanted to, you know, thank you for saving Tails' life."

"It's no problem; I could see that you and he share a bond or something."

"Yeah, the both of us go way back, he's like a little brother to me, and well, I don't know what I'd do without him."

"You remind me of my older brother Alex."

"Oh? How so?"

"He's the same way when it comes to me. I'm really the only family he has left, and vise-versa." Nero then looked out in the night sky in thought. "I wonder how he's doing without me." As Nero began to get lost in his thoughts, the sound of a propeller engine started to come closer and closer to the island. Then a red bi-plane flew through the clouds and landed in a clearing.

"That's…not what I expected." Nero stated with a confused look.

"What? That's his prized plane, the original Tornado." Sonic said. "You got to start small before you get to the big stuff, right?" He started to walk over to the plane, Nero following close behind. Tails then jumped out of the cockpit with a grin.

"Man it's been awhile since I flew this thing."

"Just like old times, right buddy?"

"Yeah…just like old times…." Tails said as he solemnly looked out into the distance.

"Something wrong?"

"No, it's just…well…nothing will be the same anymore."

"Don't feel too bad bro, at least it won't get boring."

"Heh, I guess you're right!"

"Can we get going? It's only two in the morning or something close to that effect." Nero droned as he walked by, trying to figure out where to sit.

"Seriously? Man, time flies when you're having fun!" The blue blur said as he jumped on the right wing, Nero uneasily following on the left. The plane revved up its engines and proceeded to take off.

"We have a place for you to sleep; you can take the guest room, is that alright with you Nero?" Tails asked as the plane took to the skies. The only response he got was…..music?

Both Sonic and Tails turned their heads to the left wing, and stared at Nero, who proceeded to nod to the song he was listening to with his eyes closed.

"Uhh….Nero?"

The wolf in question didn't respond as he continued to nod his head. Both Sonic and Tails looked at each other before they shared a mischievous grin. Sonic held on to the wing and Tails fastened his seatbelt. Receiving a thumbs up from Sonic, Tails jerked the control stick to the left, causing the Tornado to roll to the left.

The sudden jolt caught Nero off guard and he fell off the wing, screaming "WHAT THE CRAP!", as he fell. Tails proceeded to make a nosedive to catch Nero, both he and Sonic laughing all the way.

* * *

About a half hour later, the trio had arrived at Tail's workshop. The door opened with Sonic entering first, followed by Tails, and Nero coming in last. The latter had a look on his face that screamed "I will end you!" all over it, along with the ruffled fur and his left eye twitching in annoyance. Hoping to break the tension, Tails tried to think up the right thing to say to avoid being in the wrong end of Nero's wrath.

"Umm…I was kidding?"

Wrong thing to say.

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WHEN YOU THREW ME OFF A PLANE AT TWO THOUSAND FEET IN THE AIR?" screamed the seething gray wolf, his eye twitching more violently.

Kaiser, who just so happened to separate himself from Nero, had a look on his face that is the equivalent of a five year old on Christmas day, and was repeating the same three words over and over. It was clearly not helping the situation.

"Let's go again! Let's go Again! LET'S GO AGAIN!"

Definitely not helping.

"Would you kindly shut the HELL up you idiot!"

"You know, I can't even BEGIN to explain—"

"Because you're an idiot." Nero interrupted.

Kaiser looked at his other with an annoyed expression and scoffed. Nero looked like he was about to say something, or yell, but he stopped himself and took a deep breath.

"You know what, I need a break. Waking up in a desert, fighting an army of robots and finding out you turned into an anthropomorphic wolf is too much in one day."

Kaiser suddenly gasped in shock. Everyone looked at him expecting that he found out about something important.

"I'm a wolf?"

Everyone in the room had one of their eyes twitch in annoyance.

"If I'm a wolf, then that means *gasp* I have a bushy tail!"

He turned around and squealed at the sight of his bushy tail and then proceeded to hug it, saying incoherent nothings that were barely audible, or understandable. The group did catch a few words like "fluffy", "mine", and him saying something like "naming it Shippo." Why he would even name his own tail is beyond anyone's guess. Nero just gave out a sigh and rubbed his temples trying to calm down, Sonic and Tails watching Kaiser with a disturbed expression.

"I need a shower." Nero stated. He looked tired from the day's events.

"Alright, you can use the bathroom upstairs, I should have extra towels." The young kit said.

"Thanks."

Tails just smiled in response, but under this guise he was heavily relieved that he got off the hook.

"I'm still gonna get payback for that stunt." Nero stated as he walked to the bathroom.

Tails groaned as his ears fell flat on his head. Sonic just patted his shoulder trying to cheer him up.

A few minutes later, Nero was in the bathroom looking at his reflection in the mirror, his expression unreadable.

"_**Whatcha thinkin about?" **_Kaiser asked mentally. Nero just ignored the question and continued to look over his now unclothed body. He closely inspected his face, gray fur, white muzzle, his mismatched eyes, and his canine ears, moving around in different positions; up, forward, back, down against his head, and a combination of one up and one down. He began to inspect more of his new, wolf body, down to his white furred chest and belly. A tuft of white fur branching out in a mess as it neared his neck. His scar on his chest still remained from his human form, though slightly covered over by fur. That scar brought back a painful memory, a memory that he wished he could forget, but it is dwarfed by a more painful memory accompanied by an uglier scar, which he is glad that he could hide. Continuing with his self inspection, he looked down his left arm and hand, the gray fur and white claws protruding from his fingertips. Nero figured that he can use his claws in combat if needed. He turned to look at his tail, an awkward feeling washing over him as he looked at it. Having a crystal replacing your organic heart, your mind split in half as the other half manifests into a sentient being living in your head, but having a tail still takes the award for "Most Disturbing Change". He swished his tail back and forth. It was awkward, yet natural to him. He looked down his legs, noticing that he was slightly standing on his toes yet not completely digitigrade. He also noticed that he had four toes on each paw, claws at the tips. All in all, this was something he has to get used to from now on.

"_**I have a crush on Knuckles!" **_Kaiser blurted out mentally.

"_The hell?" _Nero responded mentally as well.

"_**Well I was trying to get your attention and that seemed to work."**_

Nero just sighed in response as he stepped in the shower stall, allowing the hot water wash down his body, the water matting his fur, another sensation new to him. He grabbed a bottle of shampoo, noticing that there's no body wash.

"_**Well since we're covered in fur, shampoo would double as body wash….wouldn't it?**_

Nero thought about it and honestly, it made sense. He lathered, rinsed, and repeated till he felt that he finished. As he shut off the water, an urge began to build, he couldn't explain it as it continued to grow, and Nero tried resist. He began to panic slightly, trying to figure out what this urge is. The urge continued to grow stronger and it felt... primal. Nero was starting to worry that he was losing control. His eyes were shifting around in panic until he noticed something about the shower stall. It was bigger than he first thought; a lot of room inside with a ceiling. His pondering was interrupted by the powerful urge overtaking him, he couldn't take it anymore and realized that it was futile at this point to resist. He allowed the urge to take over and he promptly got down on all fours…..and violently shook the water off his body. After he finished shaking he stopped and immediately stood up straight. He was horrified.

"_Did I just…?"_

"_**Shake the water off like a dog causing you to look like a Chia Pet?"**_

_ Absolutely. Horrifying._

Looking at himself, Nero noticed that his damp fur was messy and wild. He quickly picked up a towel and towel dried the rest of the moisture off his body. He then wrapped the towel around his waist and promptly walked out of the bathroom, trying to push the thought of him acting so, animalistic. He nearly ran into Tails when he walked out. He saw that the young kit was holding a pair of socks and gloves.

"Umm, you alright Nero?" The twin tailed fox asked.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine." Nero responded.

**_"Ch-ch-ch Chia!" _**Kaiser sang in Nero's mind.

_"Oh fuck you." _the aggravated lupine retorted mentally.

"What are those for?" Nero asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, these are yours; I was going to have your stuff washed since it's bound to be dirty from all the fighting today. Maybe tomorrow I can show you around town and you can buy some stuff for yourself." Tails replied.

"Oh…well thank you."

"You can sleep in the guest room. Normally it would be Sonic's room, but he prefers to sleep on the roof."

Nero nodded as he followed Tails to the guest room. It was a plain room, containing a bed, desk, dresser, and closet. The walls were painted blue and the floor had a dark redwood finish. His HADES computer gauntlet sat on the desk next to the bed. Nero turned to Tails and took the pieces of clothing until he noticed something on the fox's arm.

"How?" Nero asked dumbfounded.

"How…what?"

"How did you get a HADES gauntlet?"

The twin tailed fox in question looked at his arm where he wore his own HADES gauntlet.

"It's, well….how do I explain this?" Tails replied, scratching the back of his neck trying to come up with an explanation.

"When I was gathering your things, I picked up your HADES computer and as soon as I did, the same thing happened from when I touched my downed Tornado…"

"What exactly happened back there?"

"When I touched the remains of the Tornado, my powers reacted to the plane's system."

Suddenly Jericho appeared leaning against the door frame.

"Apparently the Tornado still had some juice left in it." The doppelganger continued.

"Both of our minds seemed to have _dived_ into its systems, or what was still running. From there, we sort of linked our minds to its data mainframe and learned about all the still functional components, mainly the scanners, a few burst engines and hover engines. That's how I knew we were surrounded before those stealth robots got there."

Nero pondered on what he learned so far.

"This is very interesting. I half expected you to have the same abilities as my brother, but this is new to me. But that doesn't explain how you have a HADES gauntlet." Nero stated.

"Oh, well when I picked up your gauntlet, I think my powers reacted to it, and I was able to learn its schematics. Then from there, I went to my lab and, from what I remember, took apart all of my computers, scanners, and other stuff to gather all the parts and components I need to create my own HADES gauntlet!" Tails explained with a hint of pride in his voice.

Nero just stood there in thought, amazed at what Tails was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time after receiving his new powers, but all in all, he seemed more concerned about something.

"Did you, see anything else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. Did you see anything else when you touched my gauntlet?"

"Well, no. Just what programs you have and other stuff…"

"What other stuff?" Nero asked, clearly concerned about the subject.

"Well I came across a few files but they were in places that were under heavy security protocols, so I wasn't able to see them."

"…Good." Nero said as he turned around and put on the pair of socks. "I'm wondering how you got past my password to access the desktop. Care to explain?"

"Oh, I'm not actually sure how I did that, but the system allowed me to access that portion of your computer. By the way, about your password…."

"Well since you're able to access that part I guess it doesn't hurt to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici." Nero recited.

"Strange password, what does it mean?"

"By the power of truth, I, while still living, have conquered the universe."

"Now it's an awesome password."

"Thank you."

"Well, I'll turn in for the night, this was one hectic day." Tails said, turning around and walking out the door.

Nero just nodded and turned to his HADES gauntlet. He sat down on the bed and browsed the internet, continuing his research.

The next day, Tails woke up pretty early. When he turned to his clock, he was surprised at what time it was.

"Six-thirty?" Tails exclaimed. He only had a three hour sleep, and is now wide awake. "Man, this must be a side effect" he contemplated. He proceeded to get out of bed and put on his gloves and shoes on, trying to figure out what to do. "_I wonder if Nero is awake too_" the kit thought. He walked down the hallway and was about to knock on the guest room door until he heard the sound of guns cocking and people panicking. "_What the hell?_"

Tails opened the door a crack and peeked inside, only to see that the guestroom turned into a courtroom. There was a human man on his knees with an older man behind him, a compact shotgun trained to the back of his head. On a pair of tables stood two younger men, both dual-wielding silenced pistols, pointing at the distressed people in the courtroom. Tails turned his vision to the left and saw Nero and Kaiser, the former sitting in his bed while the latter sat backwards on a chair. Synchronized with the two men, Nero and Kaiser began to speak, starting with Kaiser.

"Now you will receive us!"

"We do not ask for your poor, or your hungry."

"We do not want your tired and sick!"

"It is your corrupt we claim!"

"It is your evil that will be sought by us!"

"With every breath, we shall hunt them down."

"Each day, we will spill their blood, till it rains down from the skies!"

"Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principals which every man of every faith can embrace!"

"These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior, and thost that ignore them will pay the dearest cost!"

"There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth, not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain."

"But if you do, one day you will look behind you and see we three, and on that day, you will reap it!"

"And we will send you to whatever god you wish."

With that final sentence, both men jumped down and joined the older man, pointing one of their guns to the back of the kneeling man's head. Nero and Kaiser pointed at the man with their hands in the form of a gun and they both recited a prayer with the other three humans.

"And shepherds we shall be, for thee my lord for thee. Power hath descended from thy hand, so that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. And we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be."

"En Nomine Patris"

"Et Filii"

"Et Spiritus Sancti"

The courtroom as well as the humans faded from view as the sound of two silenced pistols and a shotgun shot off.

"I love that movie." Kaiser stated. At this, Tails walked in the room.

"What was that?" the confused kit asked.

"A movie." Kaiser answered with a grin.

"Well that much is obvious, what was it about?"

"Two brothers that got sick and tired of the crime and corruption of the city and they start killing off the gangs in the area." Nero explained. "That speech in the courtroom was when they revealed themselves to the public."

"Seems like an interesting movie, guess I should watch it sometime." Tails thought aloud.

"Don't think that's a good idea." Nero advised.

"Why is that?"

"This movie is for pirates cause it's rated AARRR!" exclaimed Nero's other.

"You are such a lame ass!"

"DON'T STIFLE MY CREATIVITY!"

The twin tailed fox just stood there as he watched the two argue. "_Thank Chaos I'm not like them…"_

"_**Yes you are." **_Replied Tails' doppelganger, causing Tails to jump. Nero and Kaiser, who had a hand pushing away from his face and was in a headlock respectively, was looking at Tails' action with a blank stare. Only thing Tails did in response was chuckle and scratch the back of his neck nervously, in which Nero and Kaiser continued to go about their business, which was arguing.

"_If Nero is technically arguing and fighting himself, would that make him insane?"_

"_**Technically yes, but talking with yourself kinda puts you on the insane or at least slightly insane side of the norm." **_Jericho stated.

"I am NOT insane!" Tails blurted out loud.

Once again, Nero and Kaiser, who stopped their small brawl, looked at Tails blankly before they realized what they were doing and got up off the floor and dusted themselves off before Kaiser spoke.

"We're all insane, it's just to what extent are we insane?"

"No way! I'm not insane at all!" Tails shot.

"Yes you are and I can prove it." Kaiser shot back.

"Alright, prove it!"

"Alright, how old are you?"

"I'm fourteen."

"You're fourteen and you fight alongside Sonic to kick Eggman's ass on a daily basis, is this correct?"

"Yeah, it's routine for us. Been doing it since I was eight! "

"Oh, so would any normal eight year old go out and risk their lives to fight an army of robots on a daily basis?"

"No! They'd be insane to do tha-," Tails stopped with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Kaiser just looked at him with a smug look on his face and made a small hand gesture.

"Here's your sign."

"You walked right into that one dude." Nero randomly stated as he put on his boots and gloves, getting fully dressed (or as fully dressed male mobians got).

Tails continued to stare blankly into space.

"I think I broke him." The silver wolf stated as he looked at Tails with a smirk.

"I think he was never outsmarted by a person that seems like an idiot." Nero stated blankly as he walked to the door. He stopped next to Tails and stared at him for a few seconds. "Your computer is on fire."

"Wait WHAT!" Tails exclaimed as he snapped out of his stupor.

"I'm kidding, and I'm also hungry."

"Oh…OH! Ok, let's get some breakfast." The young kit said as he headed for the kitchen. Nero and Kaiser followed after him.

"So…" Tails started as he rummaged through the fridge. "Do you like chili dogs?"

"No thanks, I could go for some coffee though." Nero replied.

"I don't really need to eat, it's more of a pleasure for me anyway." Kaiser said.

"Okay then…."

"I'd look after your coffee if I were you Tails…" Kaiser warned with a smirk.

"Why's that?"

"Nero is a heavy coffee addict."

"He is?" Tails then looked towards Nero, where he was already preparing a mug and heating up some water in a coffee pot.

"Guilty as charged." Nero stated without turning around.

Tails just had a sweat drop and then continued to go through his fridge. He shifted though a few food items until he came across a small pitcher of pancake batter.

"Hey, do you guys like waffles?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, we like waffles." Both wolves answered.

"Do you guys like pancakes?"

"Yeah, we like pancakes," They answered again.

Pulling out some bread and eggs, Tails placed all the food items on the table.

"Do you like French toast?"

"Yeah, we like French toast."

" Dee de de dee de dee de-" Kaiser began to sing before Nero cut him off.

"If you break out into song and dance I'm going to throw you out the window." Nero warned after he downed half a mug of coffee.

"You know what? You are the biggest killjoy in existence!" Kaiser proclaimed.

"Hmm, let me put it this way, the contents of this mug I'm holding represent how much I care about what you said." Nero started as he calmly walked toward his other. Then he dumps the hot coffee on Kaiser head, resulting in him instinctively shaking it off and falling off the chair from doing so with a yelp.

Nero then looked at his mug and huffed.

"Oh look, it's freaken empty."

Tails (and Jericho) watched the entire scene unfold before them and were both glad of one thing.

_Thank Chaos we're not like them_.

* * *

Several hours later, Tails and Nero were walking around the market district of New Mobotropolis. Nero didn't have his trench coat on because it had to be rewashed (Blood is kind of difficult to get off let alone Kojima charged blood), so all he had on was his combat boots, fingerless gloves, and sunglasses. Tails sported his own sunglasses as well to hide his new…features. As they walked, Nero looked around at the locals. He noticed that the female mobians wore full sets of clothing and the males had nothing but gloves, socks and shoes on. He did spot some other males with a few other pieces of clothing along with the normal attire, and then there were very few that wore full sets of clothing.

"What's with…" Nero began before Tails cut him off.

"All the girls completely clothe themselves because, well for obvious reasons. The guys can wear full sets of clothes too, but it's just an accessory. Either that, or just show off that they have money." Tails explained.

"…please don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Read my mind." Nero answered irritably.

"Oh, sorry. I'm still getting used to this." Tails said as his ears drooped down.

"By the way, I didn't get the chance to ask you…"

"What?"

"How were you able to achieve Vanguard?"

Tails thought about it for a few minutes before he gave his answer.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure. It felt similar to going into my super form…"

"Super form?" Nero asked. He was intrigued now.

"You remember the Master Emerald the Knuckles was talking about?

"Yes, I remember such gem."

"That gem controls a set of seven smaller gems called the Chaos Emeralds. The Chaos Emeralds contain massive amounts of Chaos energy. Gather all seven, and you can gain an incredible amount of power. Sonic uses them a lot as well as Shadow. They go into their super forms which allows them to do impossible things."

"Can you go into a super form?"

"Yes, but not with normal Chaos emeralds, they would have to transform into super emeralds for me to go at least super. Sonic and Shadow would go hyper though."

" Hyper?"

"Basically a second stage of their super forms."

"So from what you're saying, your super form is extremely difficult to access."

"Right, I can't control Chaos energy like Sonic or Shadow can."

"Hmm. I think I know why."

Tails' ears perked up in response.

"What? Really?"

"Yes. When I look at how Sonic and you fight, you two are very different. Sonic doesn't seem to have a plan, he just goes with the flow, be unpredictable."

"Just like Chaos energy, it's unpredictable and allows the user to do impossible things." Tails pondered.

"Right, you on the other hand, are very calculating. You make tactical decisions and perform them accordingly. Last time I checked, that's not chaotic at all."

"So from what you're saying…"

"Exactly, Kojima energy, in the way of harnessing it, is the opposite of Chaos energy. You have to concentrate, use your ability to calculate in a situation and then execute them."

"In other words…"

"Order."

"Hmm, that is interesting. And it sorta makes sense…"

"What don't you get?"

"How was I able to create a robotic suit with aircraft weapons and parts? That seems like a chaotic thing."

"You tell me. What was going through your mind when that happened?"

"Well, the first thing was that I needed something to see those assassination robots. Then I needed weapons as well as a means to move fast."

"Well there you go. Your plane had all that, and your Kojima energy did the rest. Your thoughts and emotions directly influence the way Kojima energy is controlled. You remember when I taught you how to create a ball of energy?"

"Yeah, didn't I almost blast you in the face?"

"Ignoring that, but yes. You remember what you felt when you created that sphere of energy?"

"I felt excited, until it got bigger, and then I panicked. After that I wanted to get it away from me before it would explode in my hand."

"There you go. Your excitement and panic caused it to become more powerful, then your thought of getting it away from you and exploding away from you was a command."

"Huh…that does explain it. Wait, what do you mean by command?"

"Just as I said. The "get it away" part was a command to shoot. The "explode" part made it an explosive projectile."

"So from what you're saying is that I can make the energy into what I want?"

"Yes, that's how I can make my weapons."

"That's awesome!"

"But there is an extent to what it can do. You see I can't create a gun with Kojima, too many parts. I also can't pull off high level techniques very easily, like teleportation. It requires too much mental power."

Tails became excited over this new information, despite the limitations. They both continued to walk until Nero spotted a selection of hats in a clothing store.

"I want to see what they got in there." Nero stated.

"Umm….okay?" Tails said with a confused look.

"Don't give me that look, I like fedoras." Nero explained as he shrugged his shoulders.

Tails didn't say anything and followed Nero into the store.

After and hour and a half, Nero and Tails were walking back to the workshop, a new black and red trimmed fedora resting on Nero's head. He was glad that there were holes cut into the top for his new wolf ears to poke out, otherwise it would have been uncomfortable and it would've been hard to hear.

"So, where's Sonic?" Nero asked.

"He's probably out on his daily cross country runs." The young kit answered.

"He can never sit still, can he?"

"It would be like telling Kaiser to cry and telling you to cheer up." Tails said with a smirk.

"Unnecessary way of putting it, but I get the idea." Nero retorted irritably.

As they reached the workshop and went inside, Tails went off to retrieve Nero's trench coat. Meanwhile, Nero placed is new fedora on the coffee table in the living room and sat down on the couch, waiting for Tails' return. As he waited his thoughts began to drift off on how to train Tails efficiently until he got an idea. From there, using his HADES computer with just the interactive holoscreen, he began to research. A few minutes later, he finished his research, and set up an appointment with a local landlord on the eastern side of New Mobotropolis. As he finished, Tails returned with Nero's trench coat, completely clean.

"Oh, thank you." The gray wolf stated as he grabbed his coat.

"No problem. So what were you doing just now?" Tails asked.

"I was just researching the area, learning more about this place since I may be here a while."

"Oh, okay then."

"By the way, I have the perfect place to train you so you can hone your skills and be able to control your powers more efficiently."

"Really? Where?"

"You'll see soon." Nero answered with a hint of smugness.

"O-kay…" Tails didn't like where this was going.

"We have to get ready. The place is on the eastern side of the city."

"Wait, right now? Isn't it getting kind of late?"

"Nope, we should be good when we get there."

"Whatever you say then…"

Tails had an uneasy feeling as he made sure everything in the workshop was locked up before they left. He wrote a note to Sonic in case he returned before he got back, whenever that would be.

* * *

After the preparations, the two set out to the eastern district of New Mobotropolis. They walked in silence for a good half hour until Kaiser decided to walk with them (when no one was around to see him separate from Nero) and break the silence.

"So where are we going?"

"A tourist attraction." Nero answered.

"For training?" Tails wondered.

"Yes, no more questions till we get there."

"Aww! This silence is so boring!" Kaiser whined.

"Learn to get over it."

"But..but...!"

"We're here." Nero interrupted.

Instantly, Tails and Kaiser looked up at the building. It was an old, abandoned facility surrounded by a tall chain fence with barbed wire on top. The building was three stories tall, with two identical sections built off the sides to create a "C" shape. The windows were barred and a few of them had the glass broken. Lastly, the sign hanging above the main entrance was hanging askew from the years of wear. Even though the sign was worn and faded, they were able to make out the words. Both Tails and Kaiser didn't like what they were reading.

"**Eastern Mobotropolis Asylum**".

Tails and Kaiser continued to stare at the decrepit building in silence, that is, until Kaiser broke it.

"….My ass!"

* * *

**Well isn't this going to be one hell of a night? Why are they at an asylum? More importantly, what kind of training will take place in this old house for the insane? We'll see in the next chapter. Hopefully I can get it done in two days. More likely it will be shorter, but that could change.**

**Yes, there are many references in this chapter derived from some of my favorite movies. Can you name them?**

**Like before, read and review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	11. Act 2, Chapter 5: Checking In

**So it wasn't two days, but at least it's within the week.**

**Here we begin the main plot of Act 1. To my readers and reviewers, sorry at how short this chapter is compared to the last chapter. I don't have that much time right now. I am deploying soon. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Nero, Kaiser, Jericho, and the concept of Kojima belongs to me. All others belong to their respective owners. Anything that seems to be the same as someone else's is merely coincidental.  
**

* * *

Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity

Chapter 5: Checking In.

"**Eastern New Mobotropolis Asylum"**

Tails and Kaiser stared at the sign until the silver wolf spoke up.

"….My ass!"

"Are we seriously going in there?" Tails asked nervously.

"No, we're just going to stand out here and gander at the front all night….of course we're going in there." Nero blatantly stated.

"Why?"

"Training of course."

"What kind of training, pray tell?"

Nero sighed in frustration. "For you to control your emotions and fear. When you control your emotions, you would be able to control your Kojima powers easier."

"Oh, well that makes sense….sort of." Tails shrugged, still slightly nervous.

"We just have to wait on the landlord of this place. He should have been here by now."

"Do you mean me?" A voice called out.

Immediately Kaiser merged with Nero before their mystery visitor could see him. The owner of the voice was an orange, male porcupine with garnet colored eyes, brown cargo pants, black combat boots, and a dark purple vest. His spines were long and clumped together behind him. At a glance, anyone could mistake him for a hedgehog if it wasn't for his unusually long tail.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Richter." The porcupine said, offering his hand as he introduced himself.

"Likewise, I'm Nero." Nero responded as he shook his hand.

"So you want to take the private tour of this old facility?" Richter asked, scratching his head in confusion.

"Yes, if you don't mind."

"I heard some rumors on this place about it being haunted. I want to know if it's true." Nero explained.

"Oh believe me, this place is haunted all right. Never seen anything like it before."

"Care to explain?"

"This facility was scheduled for demolition many years ago. When the demo crew came, all their equipment just stopped working. They later tried explosives, but the same results. All the explosive devices would not go off, and that's not the weirdest thing that's happened."

Nero raised an eyebrow with intrigue as the porcupine continued his story.

"People who have entered this building were never seen again!" Richter exclaimed.

Nero just looked at Richter with a blank stare. Richter kept his intense and fearful look as he stared back.

"Ok I was just kidding about that, but strange things did happen to some people." Richter continued as he got on a more serious tone. "There were reports of some people developing acute mental disorders to serious stuff like dementia or schizophrenia, depending on how long they stayed inside." he finished.

"That is interesting…" Nero contemplated. "Did you bring the other files about this place that we talked about?"

"Ah yes!" Richter answered as he reached into his vest and pulled out a folder filled with documents. "Here they are."

Richter handed the folder to Nero, who which began to read through the papers.

"So, the authority over this facility belonged to a **Dr. Reynard Hyena**, who, might I add, hand selected his employees that watched over the patients. These other files contain the list of patients and their stat-" Nero stopped abruptly at what he read next and furrowed his brows. "Well this _is_ interesting."

"What is?" Tails asked nervously.

"It says here that all the patients either died or committed suicide."

"How is that interesting?"

"The interesting part is that those associated with the patients, like their family and friends went missing some time after."

"That is interesting" Richter commented. "I think..."

"But wait, there's more." The grey wolf started. "The patients' bodies were never found. Those associated with the patients that disappeared were never found also. Months pass and suspicion rose about the disappearances. When the local authorities came to search the place, the building was empty, no trace of the patients, staff or Dr. Reynard. "

Nero finished reading all the information that he needed and stuffed the folder in his coat. Then he began to walk to the main entrance of the asylum with Tails and Richter following him.

"Mr. Richter…" Nero began.

"Please, just call me Richter; I don't need to feel any older."

"Fine, can you unlock the doors? After that can you stay out here and wait for us till we get back?" Nero asked.

"Wait, don't you want me to show you around?" asked the dumbfounded porcupine.

"No, we're just going to look around. Nothing big."

"Alright, whatever you say." Richter said as he pulled out a key and unlocked the front doors. Nero and Tails, albeit nervously, walked into the asylum while Richter shut the door behind them.

"_Something bad is going to happen, I just know it_…" Richter thought uneasily.

The two canines walked into the main lobby, the lights revealing the age and wear of the former medical facility.

* * *

Nero's POV

As I entered the main lobby I looked around and noticed that the furniture remained untouched. It seemed that no one came to take anything of value from this place and just abandoned everything. I looked behind me and saw that Tails was nervously looking in every direction as if something would jump out at him. I couldn't blame him; he's just a kid after all. Then again, that's why I brought him to a place like this, so he can control his fear. Speaking of fear…

"My brother used to tell me something." I say, making Tails jolt slightly.

"What did he say?"

"It's about fear. My brother likes to read and came across a passage about fear."

"What was it?"

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. It is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. When it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain." I recited. I followed these words for a long time. They helped me get through some situations…..some, but not all.

"I try to keep to these words when I'm faced with a frightening situation." I continued.

"You? Frightened? There's something to see." Tails said with doubt in his voice. At least he not that nervous any more. We continued through the main lobby. A reception desk was built between two sets of double doors, each labeled "Lounge" and "Cafeteria".

"So why are we here again?" The young kit asked.

"I'm going to train you to control your fear. We went over this already." I explained, slightly annoyed. I walked over to the reception desk and glanced at the wall behind where the receptionist would normally sit to find a dust covered map of the entire facility. The first floor had the lounge and cafeteria. The second floor had the infirmary in the right wing, the doctor's offices in the center portion of the floor, and the recovery in the right wing. On the second floor, the left and center sections had the patient's rooms, while the right wing had the solitary confinement rooms, the ones with the padded walls. There were two elevators, one in the center of the building, and the other in the lobby. There were also 3 stair cases, one on each wing of the buiding. Studying the map further, I noticed that this building had a basement for storage. As I looked harder at the basement section, it seemed that there is a part of it that was painted over, as if someone was trying to hide another section of the basement. I started to turn to Tails when suddenly the power went out, and plunged the building in darkness. I thought that this would've been a simple walk through a "haunted" asylum.

I miscalculated.

* * *

3rd person.

The lights suddenly went out, which caused Tails to yelp in surprise. His eyes started to dart around, trying to find something, anything, but it was pitch black. He began to panic until something grabbed him, causing him to jump.

"Whoah, calm down Tails." Nero assured. Tails started to breathe, which then became faster and faster.

"Tails, close your eyes." The grey wolf calmly said.

"B-but…"

"Just do it."

Tails shut his eyes as Nero grabbed his shoulder in reassurance. Strangely, Tails was beginning to calm down.

"Good, this is one way to control your fear when it comes to darkness." Nero stated.

"How does shutting my eyes help me control my fear?"

"My brother said this, when your eyes are open and yet you don't see anything, you begin to panic. The subconscious part of your mind thinks that, if your eyes are open, you should be seeing things, but because you can't, it gets confused and you start to panic. If you close your eyes in this situation, then you calm down, because that same part of your mind registers that your eyes are closed, and that you shouldn't be seeing anything at all." Nero explained.

"Wow, I never realized." Tails said as his breathing stopped.

"Now I'll teach you a technique with your eyes." Nero started. "This will allow you to see in the dark. All you have to do is focus some of your energy into your eyes."

Tails nodded in acknowledgment and concentrated. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see his surroundings. It was darker than he thought, but he could make out the objects in the room as well as Nero standing next to him.

* * *

Tails' POV

Wow, just wow. This is incredible! I can see everything! I looked around the room. It was dark with a slight blue tint to it. When I looked up to Nero, he seemed to have taken off his sunglasses. I looked at his eyes and from what I can see, they were glowing more intensely. Oh wait, I totally forgot I was wearing my own set of sunglasses. When I took them off, everything seemed to be a bit brighter. Before I could stash them away, I heard something. From the sound of it, it sounded like someone humming a tune. I turned to Nero and from his ear twitching slightly I could tell that he was hearing it too. The humming started to get louder and louder, I turned to Nero and saw that he was looking at the set of doors that led to the lounge. Suddenly, said set of doors creaked open and then shut. I was now terrified. The humming started to get louder and louder, as if whoever is humming was coming closer. There was no one but Nero and I, yet the source of the humming was getting closer and closer. I looked towards Nero and saw that his eyes were following something. Then all of a sudden, he gently pushed me away as he took a step back, the humming going past us. From what I can tell, it was heading towards the cafeteria. The weird part, I noticed Nero's eyes following the source of the humming. The humming was moving towards the door until they opened, and then shut. What the hell just happened?

"Umm…."

"It was one of the patients." Nero interrupted.

Oh…..wait WHAT?

* * *

3rd person.

"What do you mean "one of the patients?" Tails nearly yelled.

"You're too loud."

"Oh, what do you mean one of the patients?" He repeated in a hushed tone.

"Concentrate more energy into your vision and you will soon see what I mean." Nero responded.

Tails did as he was told and shut his eyes, focusing more power into his eyes, when he opened them again he looked around confused.

"Nothing happened."

"You're impatient, you know that?" Nero said as he began to walk towards a stairwell.

"Hey wait up!" Tails followed the gray wolf and stayed close. He didn't want to be alone in this creepy place.

The duo reached the stairs and walked up to the second floor. Tails was starting to shake with each creak the stairs made.

"You have got to relax, Tails. This is why we're here." Nero advised. They reached the second floor and looked down each hallway. Suddenly, they both heard echoed voices from one of the rooms. They both turned to their right, at the source of the voices.

"I thought we were the only ones in here." Tails pondered.

"….we are." said Nero as he looked down the hall.

"But then who…" Tails didn't even get to finish as his eyes widened in shock. Three, semi-transparent figures walked out of one of the rooms. Two of them were doctors, a cat and a tiger, escorting a sedated patient on a wheelchair, which was a dingo, to the center elevator. Tails couldn't believe it, his face drained of color from fear, like he's seen a ghost, mainly because he is watching three of them walk by.

"Are y-you seeing…?"

"Yes"

"A-are they…?"

"Yes."

Again, Tails started to shake. The only ghosts he ever saw were white and round with a maniacal face that liked caused mischief. He's never seen ghosts like these before.

The ghosts walked into the central elevator and vanished from sight. Nero turned his attention to Tails, who was visibly shaking.

"First time seeing a ghost?" the wolf asked calmly.

"N-no, I've seen ghosts before, but n-not like those." Tails stuttered.

"Don't worry about these ghosts, they're harmless. These kinds of ghosts are just spirits that are going through an event from when they were alive." Nero explained. "You can't interact with them, it's the other kind of ghosts you want to be worried about."

"W-which ones?"

"Poltergeists. They are violent spirits that cling to the land of the living because of a few reasons. Either they want revenge from being murdered, there is something of value that they want to protect, or that they are filled with so much hate, that they want to cause as much suffering as possible just because they envy the living. From the reports of people developing mental illnesses from being in here, I'd say there would be a few poltergeists in this building."

Tails shivered at the sound of that.

This was not going to be a pleasant night.

* * *

**Sorry for short chapter, but you now have an idea on what Act 1 is about now. :)**

**Once again, I thank all the readers and those that review this story, if you come across any mistakes, please let me know. I always have room for improvement.**

**Also thanks goes to Kratos Pwns for catching the error on the spelling in the last chapter. I fixed it. :D**

_**Reviews are what drives me to continue, so please review!**_


	12. Act 2 Chapter 6: Madness and Nightmares

Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity

Chapter 12: Into the Depths of Madness, Nero's Nightmare.

Workshop

Sonic, after a cross country run, returned back to Tails' workshop to check up on him. As he walked into the living room, he noticed a small note addressed to him from his little brother.

"_**Sonic, I'm out with Nero so he can help me develop my abilities. Don't know when I'll be back. Tails."**_

"Hope he's at least enjoying himself." Sonic thought out loud with a grin.

Back with Nero and Tails

Tails was not enjoying himself, he was actually shivering in total fear as he clung to Nero while they walked towards Dr. Reynard's office. The reason, there was a large group of ghosts walking about around them. All the ghosts were a mix of patients, who were either babbling to themselves or staring blankly into space, and caretakers, who stood watch over the patients. The two living canines proceeded to walk towards the head doctor's office. As they entered the office, Nero, after Tails walked in close behind, shut the door and looked around. The room was filthy with dust, and had a small ray of dim moonlight coming through the cracked, barred window. The furniture, like the rest of the asylum, was untouched. Nero walked around and looked over every part of the office as if he was searching for something. Tails watched closely at Nero's actions, slightly calmer since there were no ghosts in this room.

"What are you looking for?" Tails asked in a whisper.

"Anything that could be used as evidence." Nero responded, keeping his attention on his inspection.

"Evidence for what?"

"From all the ghosts we've seen, most of them were patients being escorted to the central elevator. All of them seemed drugged as well. In the main lobby, the bottom of the facility's map was painted over, covering the lower levels." The gray wolf explained.

"So from what you're saying, something happened to those patients that went down that elevator, and there was something more going on in this place."

"Exactly."

Nero was behind the desk and began to thoroughly inspect it. He opened the drawers and scanned through some documents contained within. So far, nothing seemed to come up that brought suspicion, that is, until he spotted something nailed to the underside of the desk. It was a small compartment, big enough to hold a book. In it, was a small, leather bound journal. Intrigued, Nero reached in and pulled out the dust covered journal. He began to read through its contents, scanning through the pages closely for anything incriminating. As he read through, his eyes slowly began to widen, and his expression turned to a slightly horrified look.

"Good lord…" Nero managed to choke out.

"What? What is it?" Tails asked, slightly worried. He's never seen Nero look frightened like this.

"He was taking all the money from the patients' families and keeping most of it to himself…"

Tails looked at Nero skeptically; there was something more to this that would shake Nero up.

"There's something more to that wasn't there?" The young kit asked, nervous about the answer.

"He had wendigo psychosis."

"Meaning?"

"He…he was a cannibal." Nero barely managed to say.

Tails simply paled at what he heard.

"H-he ate the p-patients?"

"The other employees were in on this too. This is why he handpicked all of them." Nero finished as he put the journal down with a solemn look. Tails was staring at Nero for a response, already dreading what the next plan of action is.

"We have to go down there."

Tails' ears immediately went flat on his head.

Ten minutes later.

Tails and Nero stood in front of the doors of the main central elevator.

"Are we?"

"Yes."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because what?" Tails exclaimed.

"Because the cannibalistic doctor that ran this asylum hid all the money he stole."

"But what if..."

"He will be down there, or what's left of him." Nero ended the conversation when he forged a katana, and sliced the metal doors into pieces with a seemingly single swing, then dismissed his blade.

"I love doing that." Nero said as he looked down the elevator shaft. Even with his night vision, he wasn't able to see the bottom, but even so, he could feel something sinister lurking at the bottom.

"How do we get down there?" Tails asked as he looked over Nero's shoulder. The wolf he was addressing didn't say anything as he continued to look down, his face unreadable, as usual. Suddenly Nero grabbed Tails around the waist and jumped down the elevator shaft while holding on to the screaming twin-tailed fox. Shortly after jumping, Nero forged a glowing red gauntlet with claws at the fingertips, and rammed the claws into the wall, slowing their decent as well as creating a loud, screeching noise on top of Tails screaming the whole way down.

The next few seconds felt like hours to Tails as they fell down the elevator shaft. Actually, it did seem like an hour now that he thought about it.

Tails POV

….What the hell? How deep is this elevator shaft? After a few more minutes of falling, I finally stopped screaming and opened my eyes. Okay….everything is in slow motion, why the hell is everything in slow motion? I looked around, Nero had the same intense look, but it seems like he wasn't moving. I tried to turn my head but even that was going in slow motion. I finally was able to look up and see Nero's hand slowing down our fall. For some reason, there was a faint, glowing red trail along the wall. Seriously…what's going on? I was trying to figure it out till everything started to return to normal speed. we finally landed at the bottom after a few more seconds. The bottom of the elevator shaft was like any other; small, elevator sized, and dark. No surprise here. The door, naturally, was shut. I looked up at the slightly destroyed wall caused by Nero's gauntlet. On it was a barely visible red glow. Why did he leave that there? Also, I've been asking a lot of questions lately.

"_**Yes you have. Jeez I thought we were the smart ones." **_Jericho mentioned.

"_You were wondering the same things."_

"_**Oh shut up."**_

"_By the way, where were you this whole time?"_

"…"

"_You were scared the whole time were you?"_

"…_**.sh-shut up."**_

"_Ha, I knew it."_

"_**Hey, ghosts are freaky alright?"**_

"_Fact."_

Without saying a word, I watched Nero walk up to the doors and forged another katana, ready to dice the door like he did before.

"_**Let's ruin his moment."**_

"_Sure, why not?"_

I saw Nero raise his blade, about to cut down the door, that is, until I brought up my hand and quickly charged Kojima energy into my hand and fired it at the door, the energy flying right past his head and blowing the doors apart. Nero quickly turned around at me with a death glare.

"What the hell man? You could've hit me!" he shouted.

"I wanted to see why you loved doing that so much, and now I know." I replied smugly.

"_**Owned."**_

"_In the face."_

Nero just gave me another glare and dismissed his katana. He then turned toward the opening I made and started walking down the basement hall. I, of course quickly followed. I really don't want to be alone down here.

"_**Hey, I'm still here."**_

"_Oh yeah., My bad."_

3rd Person.

The halls were narrow and the ceiling was dripping from leaking pipes. It seemed that the building still had running water, and since everything was never maintained, the condition obviously got worse and worse. Both Nero and Tails walked down the halls, passing storage rooms and other utilities. Nero, periodically, placed his hand on the walls, leaving a light red glow on the spot. Curious, Tails looked closely at the glowing red spots, trying to figure out what they were for.

"What are you leaving these for?" He finally asked.

"You'll see later." Nero replied as he placed another glowing spot on the wall.

The both of them finally reached the end of the hall, a set of double doors blocking the way to the large storage section of the facility. The doors were chained shut and locked with a large padlock. Nero and Tails looked at each other and then at the door, both sharing the same thought.

A few seconds later, Nero and Tails stood in the old storage room, of course after blowing the doors off its hinges with a combined Kojimic energy blast.

"What do you call that move by the way?" Tails asked.

"What move?" the gray wolf replied.

"The Kojima blasts that we did."

"Oh, actually, I never gave it much thought." Nero said as he looked down in thought.

"You remember when Sonic and I talked about Shadow?" Tails started.

"Yes, I remember."

"He does pretty much the same thing. He calls it Chaos Spear. They're two more abilities he has, Chaos Blast and Chaos Control."

"Please elaborate." Nero said, intrigued.

"Okay, Chaos Control allows him to do many things, like teleport, slow or stop time." Tails explained as they both walked around inspecting the room.

"What about Chaos Blast?"

"Chaos Blast, well, I actually never seen him perform that move, but according to what I've heard, he unleashes a large explosive blast. It pretty much destroys everything in the area around him."

"Reminds me of one of my moves, but it just creates a shockwave around me. It doesn't really do much damage, but it can push away most things. It's more of a defensive ability. I can however overcharge it to do a wider area, which then it can do damage to anything that's closer to me." Nero explained.

"What do you call that move?" Tails asked.

"Zetsumei." Nero answered.

"I'm not going to even ask what that means."

"Suit yourself." Nero just sighed. _"but I have to be that __thing__ to use it."_

Tails' ears perked at hearing Nero's stray thought. "_What did he mean by that?" _Tails wondered.

"_**There's a lot more to him than we know, I believe." **_Jericho added.

"Check this out."

Both Jericho and Tails were knocked out of their thoughts and walked to Nero, who stood in front of a large chemical shelf.

"What's up?" the young kit asked.

"Do you see something out of place here?"

Tails looked carefully at the shelf for anything out of the ordinary. The shelf contained your everyday chemicals from cleaning solvents, drain fluid, and floor wax. There were cobwebs littering the shelf on various places. Upon closer inspection of the shelf, Tails noticed some of the cobwebs moving, as if there was an air current pushing them.

"There's something behind this shelf, isn't there?" Tails asked.

"Yes there is." Nero responded.

"We should find the mechanism to open this secret door then."

"Or we could just blast it down." Nero suggested.

Suddenly, another ghost walked up to the secret door. This one however was a ghost of a little girl, a vixen, dressed in a simple red dress. She stood before the shelf and then reached under the lowest shelf, stood back for a few seconds and then walked through the door. Tails looked at the spot where the little ghost girl was and then turned back to Nero, who held a stoic expression, as usual. Tails just shrugged his shoulders and reached under the same spot and felt a latch. He pulled it and the chemical shelf shifted back a few inches and slowly swung open, revealing a flight of stairs going deeper into the basement. Without a second thought, Nero walked down the stairs quickly. Confused, Tails followed warily. From what he can tell, something is bothering Nero. When Tails reached the bottom of the staircase, he was in another hallway. To make things worse, he lost sight of Nero. Now worried, he proceeded down the hall, hoping that he would catch up to the wolf. He continued to walk down the hall until he reached a slightly open door. Tails cautiously walked up and peeked through the door. He found Nero, standing in the middle of the room. The disturbing thing, the room was massive, and there were bones everywhere. Tails' eyes widened, and instinctively, his eyes became charged with more Kojima energy. Now that his eyes were charged with more energy, he could see that Nero wasn't the only one in the room. At the back of the room, there was another person standing, facing Nero. Upon closer inspection, the person was a hyena, wearing a vest and a doctor's coat, loafers, white gloves and a pair of round glasses. The most defining features were that he had bald spots on parts of his body where fur should normally be, and by just looking at him; he was all skin and bone.

Nero glared at the decrepit hyena with hate in his eyes.

"You must be Dr. Reynard."

The hyena just stood there and then suddenly a shadowy aura emanated from his form, a voice echoing as if from nowhere.

"You are correct."

Nero's glare intensified as the ethereal voice continued.

"Why have you come here?"

"The stories and rumors about his place pushed me to investigate." Nero responded with venom in his voice.

Tails slowly made his way into the room, trying to go unnoticed, until he felt something tug on one of his namesakes. He looked back slowly and saw the little ghost girl grabbing his tail, shaking her head as if she didn't want Tails to go in. Tails, however, was mentally freaking out. Why didn't she want him to go in and most importantly, how is this ghost able to physically _grab_ him? The ghost then turned to Nero and Dr. Reynard and hid behind Tails. Recovering from his mental panic, Tails placed his hand on the ghost's shoulder, to reassure her that everything is going to be okay, and surprisingly, he was able to physically touch her. How was this possible? Turning back to Nero and Dr. Reynard, Tails noticed the intensity of Reynard's shadowy aura. Something was about to happen, and it wasn't going to be good. Suddenly, the aura lashed out at the bones in the room, causing them to levitate and swirl around the doctor.

Nero's POV.

I looked on in concern. I was hoping to deal with just another ghost, maybe a poltergeist, but a lich? This is too dangerous to train Tails let alone fight with him in the area. I may have to go all out.

"_At least it won't be boring."_

"_**Just give me the word and I'll massacre that freak."**_ Kaiser snarled in my mind.

That's right, this is the only thing that can and will set him off. Even though Kaiser is the embodiment of my positive emotions, the only thing that will cause him to show rage, would be to desecrate the remains of the dead. Do that and you just earned yourself a free pass to Kaiser's Face Removal Service. You don't want a free pass to Kaiser's Face Removal Service. He provides excellent customer service in, you know, face removal. I can feel Kaiser's rage building ever so steadily. I have to end this quickly, if Kaiser gets too enraged, I'm afraid he'll separate from me and at this time, it would create the worst possible scenario.

"Vanguard." I immediately call out, my signature Dragonblades manifesting behind me. I willed all of them to levitate in a cylindrical shape around my extended arm. The Rail Formation. I only use this formation if I need to make long distance shots. If used close range, let's say that getting shot by a high-velocity blast of Kojimic energy at point blank is not pleasant. The blades began to spin around my arm, creating a red glow, charging a sphere of red Kojima energy in my hand.

3rd Person POV

As Nero charged his shot, he failed to notice some of the bones moving towards Tails' direction! Tails looked to his left and saw a dozen bones, broken and sharpened, fly at him like a hail of javelins! Tails, still shaken up by everything that went on during this night, stood still in fear as the bone javelins came at him. Suddenly, a large orange and green hammer flew through the air and knocked the bones in different directions before landing on the ground. Everyone in the room turned to the direction the hammer came from and saw an orange porcupine.

"Richter?" both Nero and Tails said.

Said porcupine just smirked and slowly walked to his hammer.

"I was looking for Reynard's secrets in this place for a while now." Richter began. "I somehow had this feeling that you guys would find it, and lo and behold! You did find it!"

Richter then walked up to the hammer and picked it up as if it was made of paper. That thing was almost twice his size! Richter looked past Nero and saw the undead doctor.

"Oh look at the creepy undead thingo! This must be the doctor. Tell me, where did you hide your stash of stolen money?"

Dr. Reynard just stood there as his shadowy aura intensified.

"I will never tell you!" his voiced echoed.

"It's probably somewhere in this room isn't it? Or maybe, behind the secret door that's behind you." Richter said smugly.

"H-how did you know!" Reynard exclaimed as he took a step back.

"If it's one thing, I can detect the vibrations through the ground like sonar. You can't hide much from a geomancer when you're underground." Richter explained.

Dr. Reynard let out an ethereal growl as his aura intensified.

"All of you will make a fine meal for me, and when I'm done with devouring your bodies, I will also devour your souls!"

"I think I pissed him off." Richter innocently stated.

"What the hell was your first clue?" Nero shouted.

As Nero's attention was on Richter, he failed to notice a single bladed bone fly in his direction. Tails noticed in the last second but before he could warn Nero, the bone already impaled through the wolf's back. Nero yelped and staggered forward, trying to grab the bone. Almost immediately, Dr. Reynard's form turned into a misty shadow and flew into the impaled bone and right into Nero's body. Nero gasped and stood frozen in place as Reynard attempted to possess him. Nero was normally immune to mind control if Kaiser was still present within him, but an entity completely entering his body and taking it over was something he can't defend himself from so easily.

Nero's mind as well as Kaiser's was racing and struggling to push Reynard out, but the amount of power the lich had was beyond what they thought. He must of devoured countless souls to gain this much power. Nero's body began shaking violently and then his hands gripped his head as his blades vanished. The wolf began to scream.

Nero and Kaiser were trying with every fiber of their being to keep Reynard from gaining control of their body, and most importantly, to keep him from releasing…_it._

Tails and Richter ran up to Nero, panicking at what to do, but honestly, they have no idea what to do.

Nero and Kaiser's struggle was slowly failing, but it was all the insane hyena needed to have his influence reach a part of their being that they so desperately tried to keep locked away. The result….

….unleashing their worst nightmare.

Instantly, a hellish, dark yellow aura erupted from Nero's body, pushing back both Tails and Richter, while at the same time, forcing Reynard out of his body. The cannibal hit the ground and slowly stood, staring at Nero who still had his hands gripped to his head. Even though Reynard was forced out, Nero and Kaiser were now fighting something else.

Nero's eyes shot open and a look of absolute fear was plastered on his face. Something wanted to come out, and it wasn't going to stop until it did.

"No, no no no no…" Nero muttered.

Tails was shocked. He has never seen Nero this way before. The wolf's body was shaking violently. Then, there was a glow around his left eye, a black scar appearing over it. His pupil distorted and a yellow ring appeared in his iris.

"No please no, make it stop…!" Nero whined, struggling as much as he can, but the internal fight with Dr. Reynard mentally wore both Nero and Kaiser out.

"Make it, make it stop make it stop make it stop _**MAKE IT STOP**_!" Nero finally screamed.

Suddenly a black and yellow aura exploded out and covered his body. Nero was barely visible through all the energy; a black, hardened carapace began to form around his body. The black shell continued to grow and cover Nero's body. The shell spread and even covered his coat, gloves and boots. His tail was covered and spines grew out of his back along his spine. More, longer spines sprouted from the back of his head. It spread to his legs and feet, claws growing out of the toes. The shell finally covered his face and muzzle, extending out slightly longer and grew fang-like parts extending past his lower jaw. Through the entire ordeal, Nero was silent. He could no longer scream. His hands dropped to his sides as they too became covered and sprouted long, sharp claws at the fingertips. Nero closed his eyes as the shell covered them, unable to fight back any longer.

Tails stood in horror at what was happening to Nero. He suspected that Nero was hiding something, but never anything like this. Richter was right next to him, unable to act and unaware of what was happening. Dr. Reynard stood and watched, trying to figure out just what exactly he's unleashed.

The aura died down and what now stood before them in Nero's place was an entirely different creature. It looked like a black, armored reptilian creature with a thick, armored tail with spines growing from the back of its head and down its spine. Its elbows and knees had a spike running up its arms and legs. The hands had sharp, deadly claws as did its feet.

Suddenly, around its body, yellow patterns ran throughout its body as well as its joints began to glow. Then its eyes opened. They had solid glowing yellow sclera with black reptilian pupils. To top it off, it had four eyes, one pair above the other.

One set of eyes turned towards Richter and Tails, while the other pair turned to Dr. Reynard. It then promptly turned towards the undead hyena. Dr. Reynard didn't hesitate to levitate a few dozen sharpened bones and threw them at the creature. The creature didn't flinch as the bones just bounced off its armored carapace. It then turned towards Dr. Reynard and started to slowly walk towards him, its left arm growing an organic blade. The undead hyena wasn't going to back down and summoned his supernatural power to create a group of animated skeletons from the bones in the room. He ordered the small army to attack the creature without mercy. The skeletons charged at the creature, coming in from all sides. The creature didn't even pay any attention to the undead horde and kept walking towards the lich. Dr. Reynard just smirked as all the skeletons were within striking distance of the armored beast. Suddenly, the creature unleashed a massive, yellow energy shockwave, pushing everything back with great force. Dr. Reynard was forced back and slammed into a wall. Almost immediately, the creature impaled the hyena to the wall with its organic arm blade. The blade detached from its arm and left the lich hanging on the wall, unmoving. The creature turned around, now facing Richter and Tails.

Both mobians took a step back as the creature slowly advanced to them. They didn't know what to do. This thing took over Nero, and he's still in there somewhere, but they don't know how to get him back to his senses. Richter pulled up his hammer and got ready to fight, the only thing he can think of at the moment. The armored being sprouted an arm blade at each arm, readying itself, a set of eyes trained on both Tails and Richter, then suddenly all four eyes set on Tails. Tails began to panic more than usual until he noticed the creature start to slow down, its eyes and head started to twitch. Tails' ears perked at hearing Nero's thoughts from the creature.

"_You….will…not…"_

The creature's arm blades detached from its arms, the yellow parts of its body glowing brighter.

"_THIS IS MY BODY!"_

Suddenly, a part of the black armor shattered in its left shoulder, the creature's eyes widened and let out a deafening, ethereal roar. It was nothing like either Richter or Tails have ever heard. It sounded like the roaring of a monstrous beast mixed with the wailing sound of a crying infant. More parts of its carapace shattered, causing it to roar more intensely. It let out on last cry and the rest of the armor shattered, Nero dropping down to the ground, barely conscious. Tails ran up and knelt down by Nero, checking his condition. He was breathing, and whimpering, like he was having a nightmare. Tails let out a sigh of relief.

"Well that was anti-climactic." Richter said in disappointment, strapping his hammer on his back. He looked around the room and grabbed the staff of his hammer.

"Where did that zombie hyena go?"

Just as he said this, the lich appeared behind Richter, ready to take a bite out of his neck, that is, until a blue beam of energy blasted him across the room. Richter just stood there in shock at what almost happened. He then turned to Tails, who had his smoking hand pointed towards the hyena's direction. Just one look at Tails and one can easily tell that he was pissed.

Dr. Reynard stood up and glared at Tails, then smirked, his mouth drooling a bit.

"I will definitely enjoy eating you and that wolf!"

"No, because I won't let you. Jericho?"

Jericho separated from Tails, clearly as angry as Tails, his eyes glowing more intensely.

"With pleasure." Tails' other said.

Jericho's body began to emit a violent blue aura.

"Vanguard."

Jericho's body was covered in his aura, nearly blinding everyone in the room.

* * *

Yay, I was able to update here.

Freaken internet here sucks. At least I have a lot of free time to write and draw.

Anywho, I'm sure that you all will like Jericho's Vanguard.

Sorry if this seems rushed, but it's better than nothing.

R&R please!


	13. Act 2 Chapter 7: The Exorcism

Act 1: A Night in the House of Insanity

Chapter 13: The Exorcism of Eastern New Mobotropolice Asylum

Everyone had shielded their eyes from Jericho's display of power.

_Caw caw caw!_

Everyone unshielded their eyes at the sound of a bird cawing. What they saw confused them. Jericho stood there, unchanged. The only thing that caught their attention was a blue, ethereal crow perched on Jericho's extended arm. Its eyes were glowing white as wisps of blue energy flowed from its body.

Dr. Reynard was just dumbstruck. All that power over creating a bird? The lich cackled at Jericho.

"All that for a lousy bird? What are you going to have it do? Peck me?" the crazed hyena said as he laughed.

Jericho just stood there, unfazed by the undead doctor's insults.

"You are obviously blind or something." The gray fox stated with venom in his voice.

"Is that so?" Reynard retorted.

In response, Jericho simply pointed up. The doctor followed the gray fox's gesture and immediately stopped laughing.

Up in the ceiling rafters were more of the ethereal birds, _hundreds _of them, all staring at the hyena.

"Oohh dear."

"This is my Vanguard, Murder of Crows." Jericho explained, around forty of the other ethereal crows flying around him. "Massacre him."

A large group of the crows instantly flew towards Dr. Reynard, leaving trails of faint blue behind them. The cannibal lich created arcs of dark energy, lashing at the crows, causing them to vanish as if he were blowing out flames. The doctor began to cackle again, that is, until a crow that got close suddenly glowed white and promptly exploded, severely burning the lich's arm and nearly tearing it off.

"I may have forgotten to mention that they explode….my bad." Jericho mentioned with a smirk.

The hyena just scowled at him before he suddenly faded from view. Jericho looked around for the cannibalistic lich until he felt someone grip his neck and lift him up into the air. Reynard appeared again, this time holding Jericho into the air by his neck, a mad smile on his face as he began to salivate.

"I'm going to enjoy devouring you!"

Jericho just gave the lich a blank stare before his body began to break apart into more ethereal crows. Reynard could only widen his eyes before the crows exploded, tearing apart his body.

The rest of the crows flew in a circle and then fused together, reforming into Jericho.

"Don't you dare touch me." Jericho said with malice as he looked at the remains of Dr. Reynard. He raised a brow when the remains of the lich were slowly reforming.

"I don't think we can get rid of him so easily." Jericho analyzed.

Suddenly the little ghost girl hugged Tails' leg tighter. Tails looked down at her with concern.

"What's wrong?" he asked, not really expecting her to answer.

"He's connected to this place." the ghost responded.

Tails nearly fell back in surprise that she answered him! Then again, he didn't expect her to answer. After catching his breath, (not that he needed to breathe anyway) he questioned her.

"What do you mean he's connected to this place?"

"He is living off all the souls he's taken. This place, the entire asylum keeps all of us trapped here, but at the same time, he can't leave." she explained.

"Then let's do something about that." Jericho said as he walked up to the rest of the group. He looked down at Nero, who was starting to come to his senses.

"What…. just happened?" Nero asked shakily.

"I don't know, you tell me." Tails said with a suspicious tone.

"All I remember is…." The wolf's eyes widened.

"What happened to you?"

Nero just looked away, clearly troubled. Everyone was knocked out of their thoughts when Richter walked by holding a briefcase, looking around in confusion.

"So were did that talking creepy thing go? Wasn't he just right there?" the porcupine asked.

"He was, till he was blown everywhere." Jericho answered smugly. "By the way, where were you?"

"Oh me? I was wandering around looking for a snack to watch the fight, but I found this briefcase full of diamonds. I would still rather have a briefcase full of jawbreakers but whatever."

"…..WHAAT?" everyone blurted.

"Excuse me…" the spectral vixen started. "We have to go. The doctor's power has weakened and his hold over the asylum is gone. I told everyone to get out while they can."

"Wait, what do you mean everyone?" Richter asked.

"All the souls he's kept here." She explained.

"Then we should take our leave before the cannibal pulls himself together." Nero stated as he tried to get up. As soon as he stood up, he swayed and almost lost his balance before Tails caught him.

"Whoa, easy there!" Tails exclaimed. He was actually more surprised that he could hold Nero up than Nero getting up in his current condition. _"Oh yeah, Kojima enhanced strength."_ Tails remembered.

"_**I wonder if we're as strong as Knuckles…" **_Jericho wondered, using his telepathic link to Tails.

"_I wouldn't push it."_

"_**Oh come on! You want to know too!"**_

"_Well…"_

"_**Nothing ventured, nothing gained."**_

"_I'll think about it."_

"_**I sure as hell won't!"**_

"_I just don't want to beat him up too bad…"_

"_**That's the spirit!"**_

Tails just rolled his eyes at his doppelganger's enthusiasm, but now is not the time to object. They had to get out of this mad house before the insane doctor makes dinner out of them. Tails supported Nero as they made their way towards the elevator shaft, in which they reached a small problem.

"So… how do we get up?" Richter asked, looking up the dark elevator shaft.

Everyone just stood there, wondering the same thing. Suddenly the ground underneath them started to rumble, until a large section of it lifted up, carrying them up the shaft. Tails, Jericho and Nero looked around confused until they saw Richter, kneeling down with his hand on the now rising platform of earth. Richter noticed everyone staring at him.

"….is there something on my face?" the confused porcupine asked.

"Why did you even ask if you were going to do this to get up anyway?" Nero asked.

"I like to hear everyone else's ideas before I shoot them down with mine because it would be obviously better." Richter answered with a toothy grin.

Nero just glared at him. He instantly knew that if he hung around Richter for too long he was going to have issues.

The group reached the main lobby, in which Tails aimed his free hand at the door. The metal elevator doors were then promptly blasted apart, Tails' hand smoking from the unleashed beam of energy.

"I really like doing that now!" Tails exclaimed.

"Beats knocking, that's for damn sure." Nero commented as Tails supported him and walked towards the main entrance. The both of them were near the front double doors until they heard a loud smash, causing the building to rumble and quake. They looked back and saw that Richter had slammed his hammer into the ground, causing the elevator shaft to cave in, sealing it off.

"There we go! Now the laughing weirdo can't follow us." The porcupine said with glee. Suddenly, the ceiling began to drip water above Richter, before the old pipes gave way and drenched him. Apparently, Richter's little stunt weakened the pipe's integrity to its breaking point. Richter's spines were soaked, causing them to droop down and cover his face.

"GAH! I CAN'T SEE! EVERYTHING IS ALL ORANGE AND WET AND COLD AND….GWAH!" Richter yelled as he ran around hysterically, flailing his arms about.

Nero, Tails and Jericho just stood and watched the scene unfold before them. It was clear that this dude has serious mental issues. It took a few seconds for Richter to finally realize what was going on and move his spines out of his face.

"Man! I hate water, especially if the water is wet!" Richter exclaimed as he walked out of the front entrance, wringing out his spines.

Tails watched Richter try to get the water out of his spines as he followed. Suddenly, he noticed something. Richter's spines were clumping together and hung down more freely than before. Something was definitely off about him…

The group finally reached the front gate of the place, only to find a large group of ghosts standing there, watching the only living group of mobians walk out of the asylum. Tails was surprised to see this many ghosts in one place, but wasn't scared, just a little confused. Then Nero knocked him out of his confusion when he spoke up.

"They're here to watch."

"Watch what?" Tails asked.

"You remember all the glowing red spots I placed all over the place?"

"Yeah."

Nero pushed a few buttons on his HADES gauntlet and then music started to play. The music sounded classical, with string instruments playing softly followed by brass instruments. Tails, Jericho and Richter just looked at Nero and then each other with a confused expression. The music started to pick up.

"Nero?"

"Wait! Here comes the crescendo!"

At the time the music reached the main part, Nero snapped his fingers. All the glowing spots inside the asylum lit up and then violently exploded, in tempo with the music playing outside. The explosions ripped through the building in a display of artistic demolition. Suddenly, a large shadowy aura appeared over the still exploding asylum, taking the form of Dr. Reynard writhing in agony, before finally fading away, nothing holding him to the realm of the living.

The ghosts of the asylum began to cheer as the wretched place was falling apart. After so many years of being trapped, so many years of subjugating to an insane doctor, so many years of being unable to rest, they were finally, finally free. Tails and Jericho watched with a smile on their face, knowing that they have done something worthwhile. Richter watched grinning ear to ear. To him, it was a marvelous display of explosives and music put together into a destructive concert and lightshow.

The asylum crumbled to the ground in a plume of smoke and dust. The ghosts cheered once again until one by one, they faded from view. The young ghost girl walked up to Tails and Nero and gave each of them a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you for freeing us!" she cried happily.

"Anything to help." Tails said, hugging her back and smiling warmly.

The young ghost vixen broke the hug and ran off giggling as she faded from view. Tails looked after where she once was, with a smile on his face. He turned to Richter, who was fixing his spines, still trying to get the water out.

"So….why did you disguise yourself as a porcupine?" Tails asked.

"Say whaaat?" Richter said with a bewildered stare.

"Well, your "spines" are clumped together and hanging down, your tail is longer than normal, and the stubs of your knuckle spikes you filed down are just barely showing through your gloves." Tails explained.

"What are you getting at? That I'm ugly? Is that what it is? HOW DARE YOU?" Richter exclaimed.

"….Actually I was going to say that you're not a porcupine, you're an echidna."

"…..Oh. Oooohhh…..oh….OH…OH SNAP." Richter nearly yelled, looking himself over. "Crap, my cover is blown, looks like I have to kill you now." He said as he raised his massive hammer.

Tails got into a defensive stance as well as Jericho, until Richter began to laugh. Both foxes just looked at each other, wondering what was going on.

"C'mon guys, I'm just kidding. You need to chill." Richter said as he put his hammer down.

Both foxes let their guard down, giving a nervous chuckle. Richter strapped his hammer on his back, picking up the briefcase, or the spot where he thought the briefcase was. He looked at where his hand was and saw that his prize was missing. He started to look around frantically, for the briefcase until he saw Nero holding it, looking inside.

"Now why would you be looking for something like this?" Nero questioned.

"HEY! THAT'S MINE!" Richter yelled.

"Now why would it be yours?"

"Because, I found it. Finder's keepers. It's an unwritten, universal law of nature." Richter explained.

"But if you were looking for it, there is a reason behind it." Nero deduced.

"And what makes you think that?"

"Well for the fact that you followed us inside the asylum and the other fact that you hid your identity as an echidna."

Richter just looked at Nero.

"Let's not forget that you have geomancer-like abilities which aren't common in the mobian populace, let alone have the strength to wield a hammer that big." Nero further explained.

"Ummm…." Richter was looking nervous.

"So, with all these facts, you are still hiding something from us." Nero finished, shutting the briefcase and looking at Richter with a smug look.

"Well, it seems I have been figured out. Now…what to do with those that know the truth?" Richter said as he paced around Nero and Tails, placing his hand on the staff of his hammer. Both Tails and Jericho assumed a defensive stance, waiting for the echidna to make his move.

Richter was about to swing his hammer when suddenly he held his hand up to his ear.

"Ahhh! Chrome! Not so loud!" Richter whined.

Again, Tails and Jericho looked at each other in confusion.

Richter just stood there with his hand next to his ear. He nodded a few times as he listened to the communication device.

"Alright fine! Just come and pick me up already. This gloomy asylum or what's left of it is still giving me the creeps. Oh and tell our guest that I found him." Richter cut off the connection and stood in place, tapping his feet. Nero, Tails and Jericho just looked at each other, wondering what was going to happen next.

Suddenly, a large aircraft, similar in design to one of Eggman's creations, came down from the sky and then hovered above the ruins of the asylum. Richter waved at the aircraft and pointed at both, Nero and Tails, Jericho merging just before. Then, the group was enveloped in a light blue aura and floated to the aircraft. Tails and Nero were taken by surprise and looked up. The saw someone walk out onto the airship's deck, his hand out and glowing in the same blue color.

Tails' eyes widened slightly.

"Is that Silver?"


	14. Act 2 Chapter 1: Memories of a Nightmare

Act 2: Time Lag.

Chapter 1: Memories of a Nightmare.

A few minutes later, inside the airship, everyone was in a conference room, sitting around a table. Richter was sitting on one end of the table while Nero and Tails were sitting on the other end. Silver was sitting on one side of the table, keeping an eye on Nero.

"…Why are you on edge? It's not like I'm gonna hurt you guys." Richter started.

"Okay, so why did you abduct us?" Nero retorted with a glare.

"Because, not only were we looking for that insane doctor's hidden fortune, we were looking for you."

Nero raised a brow at that statement and started to get suspicious.

"By "we" you mean who?"

"My brother and I, that's who." A new voice said.

Both Nero and Tails looked toward the door and saw another echidna. This one, unlike Richter, has a serious look about him. His fur was white, a very uncommon color for an echidna. His dreads, unlike Richter's messy style, were pulled back behind him with some hanging to the sides of his head like bangs. Upon further inspection, this echidna was wearing a closed black vest with a matching pair of cargo pants. A white belt was buckled around his waist, and an ornate, white katana was strapped to the belt. He wore a pair of gloves with white spikes protruding from his knuckles, unlike Richter, who now wore large mittens with spikes.

"Can you not pop up like that, Chrome?" Richter asked with annoyance.

"No, because it scares you when I do, and it amuses me." Chrome explained smugly.

"Umm….before we start anything, can we make a stop by my place?" Tails interrupted.

Both echidnas looked at Tails with their brows raised.

"Uhh….sure? Where do ya live?" the orange echidna responded.

"Mystic Ruins. There is a workshop in a forest clearing." Tails explained.

Chrome just rolled his eyes and pulled out a small device from his pocket. It appeared to be a small handheld computer. He pushed a few buttons on it and suddenly the airship started to fire up its engines. The ship began to change its course to Mystic Ruins.

"So, why were you two looking for me?" Nero started.

"We were hired to look for you." Chrome answered.

"Who hired you?"

"Can't tell you. Client confidentiality. Standard rules."

"And why would this person hire you to find me?"

"Can't really say. He just told me to find you."

"I really don't know why Alex wanted me to go with you two to find him." Silver finally spoke.

"Wait, did you say Alex?" Nero said as his ears perked in interest.

"Yes I did, but before I go into any more details, you need to explain something to me."

"And that would be…"

"Are you the being known as Azazel?" Silver asked accusingly.

Nero's eyes widened in shock at hearing that name. There was no way this hedgehog knew about _it_.

"Where did you hear about that?" Nero asked, his voice trembling.

"I'm not from around here, let alone this time. I'm from at least two hundred years into the future, give or take." Silver explained. "In the distant future, the world is ravaged by a plague that mutates its victims. The one who controls them is an entity known only as Azazel, and from the information I gathered at that time, you had something to do about it. So I suggest you explain yourself."

Nero looked down for a bit, unsure on what to do. A few moments later he came to a decision.

"Fine, I will tell you, everything, but first we need to pick up a few people." Nero finally said.

"Who are we going to pick up and why?" Richter asked.

"Well the other two know about me and it would be incredibly rude to not let them know."

A few hours later; after Tails picked up Sonic and one of his other jets, the air ship landed on a clearing on Angel Island. After a lot of explanations to a certain guardian, and drama related to Knuckles finding out that he's not the only echidna left, Nero began to explain.

"Now, where to begin?" Nero contemplated. After a moment of thought, he began.

"Okay, my name, my real name, is Damien Rosenthal Price. Since the accident that gave me my abilities, I took the name Nero because..."

At this, Kaiser separated, causing Chrome and Richter to jump in surprise. Kaiser however, didn't laugh as he normally would, but continued to explain.

"Because if he still used our real name, it would confuse us both, considering that we're the same person and would then, respond to the name Damien."

"In any case, my abilities and powers came from the crystal that, for lack of better terms, killed me." Nero continued. He activated his HADES and a hologram of a red crystal appeared. Everyone looked at the hologram with intrigue. "Back then, at the time of the accident, I was in a research facility, attending a demonstration on a new form of energy. That crystal was hooked up to a device to extract the energy that this crystal constantly produced."

Nero looked away for a second before he continued.

"When the device was activated, the crystal reacted violently, causing the device to overload and explode. The explosion turned that crystal into a projectile and…." Nero's voice started to break. Kaiser then finished what he was going to say.

"It impaled him to a wall." Kaiser said with slight seriousness.

Everyone just cringed at the thought.

"As soon as that happened, the energy started to merge with my body and it replaced what was left of my heart. From there, the energy seeped into my brain and caused my mind to split." Nero explained.

"That's when I was born!" Kaiser exclaimed.

"Dude, don't ruin the moment." Nero scolded.

"Oh come on! This story is too serious and it's killing the mood." The doppelganger whined.

"Well enough about that, we have to explain the other thing." Nero said with a sigh.

"What other thing?" Sonic asked. "What did I miss?"

"Access all files related to Exavil." Nero commanded.

Suddenly the system pulled up many files from building schematics, employee logs, scientific notes, and project information. Nero walked around the room and tapped a file labeled "The Twilight Stone". The system pulled up a picture of a stone, a meteorite to be exact.

"What you see right now is the Twilight Stone." Nero began. "This is the main project within the underground research center named Exavil."

HADES pulled up more files regarding the Twilight Stone. Tails looked at the many reports filed by many other scientists…until he spotted one in particular.

"Nero….is that your dad?" Tails asked as he pointed to the file.

Nero's ears perked at the question and then looked to where Tails was pointing. He sighed and then pulled the file up.

"Yes, my dad worked there as the lead scientist. He was the one that started the project. He was the one that actually designed Exavil." Nero explained as he opened up the folder and displayed a log entry.

"_**Meteor Discovery. July 24**__**th**_

_**It's been five weeks since the discovery of the meteorite. Under initial study the meteorite seems to give off a strange radioactive signature. Further study on the cause is required."**_

"_**Meteor Study. August 10**__**th**_

_**The cause for the radiation emission is still unknown. After taking precautions, we were able to transport the meteorite to Exavil. A special containment chamber has been prepared for it."**_

"_**Twilight Stone Project. August 28**__**th**_

_**My colleagues and I have agreed to name the meteorite the Twilight Stone for the faint yellow light it emits in the dark. Other than the glow it emits under low light conditions, no answers have come to surface, only more questions. Before the transport, the Twilight Stone didn't glow in the dark until it was confined in a closed space. Drilling into it has become risky; the radiation is strong enough to penetrate the highest level of radiation protection suits. Some of my colleagues have grown sick due to the radiation. We may have to use robotic means to study it."**_

"_**Twilight Stone Project. October 29**__**th**_

_**Almost two months and still no answers. The radiation the stone emits is becoming more and more intense. I have deduced that the stone is producing the radiation and the confined space is concentrating it. I have confidence though that the containment chamber will hold it. On a side note, I shall bring my son, Damien, to Exavil for a little father-son bonding. Since the accident with the energy crystal, he hasn't been himself. Hopefully this will have him open up more."**_

**-End of Logs-**

Everyone was silent for a while after they finished reading all the logs. It was at that point that most of them started to realize something.

"Your father worked there?" Knuckles asked with interest.

"Yeah, he was the lead scientist there that studied that thing." Nero responded with sadness in his voice.

"Wait, he "was"? Sonic spoke up after a moment of thought.

Nero just looked away, having difficulty with what he was about to say.

"There was a reason that there are no more logs on this subject." Nero began. "When I went to Exavil, my father and I were in one of the lowest levels of the facility. It was at that point when the nightmare began."

"Ooh! Ghost story! But wait, we need a camp fire, and marshmallows, and chocolate, and graham crackers! Mmmm…..s'mores…." Richter randomly blurted.

Everyone just looked at him in annoyance, especially Nero. Actually, Nero was about a few seconds from strangling the echidna with his bare hands. Said echidna just looked at everyone in confusion.

"What? Every ghost story demands s'mores…it's part of the natural order." Richter said as he crossed his arms.

"Can you be serious for one second?" Chrome scolded.

"Well I can't help it!" Richter exclaimed and then pointed to Nero. "And can you not be such a drag when you tell stories? I'll be your best friend if you do!"

"Does anyone like getting a root canal?" Nero retorted.

"You're not nice!"

"So I've been told."

As the two were quarreling, Silver was beginning to lose his patience. He was about to suspend the both of them in midair until a loud beeping interrupted him. Everyone stopped and looked towards the beeping, which happened to be coming from Tails' HADES. Without even accessing it, Tails looked out into the ocean, a look of seriousness in his eyes.

"Yo Tails, what's going on?" Sonic finally spoke.

"A large number of Eggman's robotic forces and his massive aerial fortress are on their way here." Tails said without moving.

Everyone gasped and looked in the same direction Tails was looking in. Sure enough, out in the distance they saw a large army of flying Halberds and Bucklers. A few groups of the assassination robots, named Phantoms, were mixed in. Behind them, a large scale aerial battle station, an Egg Carrier, was flying towards Angel Island. Sonic began to smirk as well as Richter.

"Finally some fun!" Richter yelled, voicing Sonic's thoughts while picking up his hammer.

Knuckles growled and cracked his namesakes. "I don't want any of them on my island!"

"Don't worry…" Tails started.

Knuckles turned toward Tails, who was standing next to his jet, his hand placed on it and glowing blue.

"Not a single one will come near the island." Suddenly, Tails' Kojimic aura spread throughout the jet, and dismantled it, the parts transforming and attaching to Tails' body. Like the last time, his jet became an armored suit, but this time with some major differences. Instead of an energy shield and an energy blade, Tails was holding sniper rifles in each hand. On the left side of his back was a large, shoulder mounted long range cannon, on his right, a missile pod. The most striking difference however was the suit itself. The arms were slightly bulkier, the shoulders were slightly larger than it was before, and the legs, instead of the normal biped style, was a quadruped set up. (Four legs, spider style).

"**Cyber Vanguard: Tornado Sniper" **Tails' now synthesized voice said. The armored suit came to life as all of Tails' and Jericho's systems came online.

"**Main System, Engaging Combat mode." **Tails declared as he raised both rifles.


	15. Act 2 Chapter 2: Another Rude Awakening

******Sorry for massive delay. It's great to be back in the states though. In any case, I got hit by a massive writer's block as well as an artist's block. Oh well, it happens. **

* * *

**Act 2: Time Lag.**

Chapter 2: Another Rude Awakening.

As the newly armored fox raised his sniper rifles, ready to rain long range hell on the oncoming army, someone walked into his view. This person completely walked past everyone unnoticed. His hair is somewhat long, tied in a loose pony tail. He was wearing a white, open lab coat, white gloves, and black and blue boots. There was a pair of sunglasses hooked to his coat. The fur on top of his head was messy and he seemed groggy. The newcomer looked out in the distance at the approaching army and scoffed.

"What a bloody mess…" he said as he stretched. Suddenly he stretched out his arm and his hand glowed an ice blue. Four Phantoms suddenly appeared in front of him, frozen in the air by a telekinetic force. The newcomer spread his fingers out and the Phantoms just disassembled completely.

"Trying to sneak up on us? Yeah, not gonna work." He looks out at the advancing army, an icy blue aura surging out of his body.

The newcomer then turned his head towards Tails, who was still watching the stranger in awe. The stranger's eyes mimicking Tails', right down to the black sclera.

"Hmm….that's a neat idea." He turned to the army. "Releasing Vanguard Restriction level 3."

Suddenly the floating Phantom parts merged with his body, exactly like when Tails went into Vanguard. After the parts merged, the stranger stood, armored like the twin tailed fox behind him, but unlike said fox, the weapon setup was different. Even in a standard, biped, armor setup, the weapons he were holding were _big. _In both hands, were large scale Gatling guns. On his back was something that no one in the area was able to identify, except for one thing. It was much too large for anyone to carry properly, even for a mech.

"**Main system, engaging combat mode." **The armored stranger stated.

The two large scale Gatling guns started to spin, and the armored stranger got into a stable position, spikes in his boots anchoring him into the ground. As soon as he extended his spinning guns out, he looked up into the sky, yelling out.

"**Now it's a FIREFIGHT!"**

After he practically howled out that sentence, he unleashed a wall of bullets. Without a second thought, Tails started firing precise sniper fire at the advancing army.

With both death machines were unleashing hell, Nero, Sonic, Knuckles, Chrome, and Richter watched and stood on guard, in case any robot was able to slip through. Silver just stood with his arms crossed and lightly laughed to himself.

"Typical Alex. He always likes to go overkill." The psychokinetic said as he watched the armored stranger, now identified as Alex.

"Wait, did you say Alex?" Nero said as his ears perked at the name.

"I did, do you know him?" Silver replied with a suspicious glare.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of clicking. Everyone looked toward the armored duo's direction to see that they've stopped shooting. They both ran out of ammo.

"**Well this sucks. I'm out of weapons." **Tails said as the armor automatically returned to normal aircraft parts. He looked towards Alex expecting the same from him. Instead, something else happened.

"**Purging." **Alex stated as both Gatling guns disconnected. **"Well time to bring out the big gun." **At this, he extended his right arm and the device on his back came to life. On his right shoulder, a robotic arm unfolded and extended out, attaching the large device on Alex's right arm. On his left, a control device folded out and attached to his left arm, a grip with a trigger extending into his left hand. A cylindrical capacitor extended on his left shoulder. The device on his right arm extended and a bipod folded out underneath. Now deployed, the device turned out to be a cannon; a really large cannon.

"What did I say?" Silver started. "Overkill."

Alex looked over the remaining forces and smirked. The capacitor started to glow intensely, energy twisting around it. The barrel of the cannon had bluish-white energy forming at the tip.

"**This is for waking me up from my nap!" **Alex yelled. He fired the massive cannon, causing him to skid back a few feet, despite the anchors. The large bolt of energy lit up the sky and tore through the remaining forces, hitting the Egg Carrier. The carrier dipped and crashed into the ocean, the robotic forces that avoided the attack deactivated and fell with the carrier.

"**Seems like a mainframe controlled the army's systems…" **Alex contemplated, the large cannon disconnecting and falling to the ground. He continued to look out into the ocean at the downed Egg Carrier. To his surprise, it was still floating.

"Huh, so it can float." Alex mentioned. He closed his eyes and concentrated. His mind expanded out, unable to detect any other minds. "The ship is empty…"

"Seems like Eggy booked it already…" Sonic wondered.

"Or he was never there to begin with." Alex mentioned. "In any case I'm going back to sleep." He finished with a yawn. The silvery wolf walked past Tails, giving him a pat on the head as he went, and continued on, leaving the fox confused. Alex continued to walk past everyone until Nero stopped him.

"Alex? Is that really you?" Nero said with hope.

Alex stopped walking and turned to Nero. Then suddenly Alex slugged Nero in the face, knocking him to the ground. Nero sat up shocked and aggravated.

"What the hell was that for?!" he yelled.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" the stranger identified as Alex murmured.

"What?"

"You cause a state of emergency that led to a huge manhunt for _you_, which then led to our place! I had to isolate the house because of you!"

Nero looked down in guilt away from his older brother.

"Then you caused a temporal disturbance that made it ten times harder to find you! What the hell were you thinking?!" Alex practically screamed.

Nero couldn't bare to look at Alex and stayed silent. Alex, however, wouldn't have that and did the only thing he knew to get his answer, read his mind. Alex's eyes flashed for a moment and then they widened. His expression immediately changed to a look of sorrow and understanding. He silently helped Nero up to his feet and walked him back to the echidna's airship.

All the witnesses just stared blankly at what just happened.

"…the hell was that about?" Knuckles finally spoke, pretty much voicing everyone's thoughts. They were expecting a happy moment for the brother's reunion, but nothing like _that_. They all agreed to let it go and walked back to the airship.

"Man! I wanted to blow something up!" Richter whined, pouting like a child being denied ice cream. Chrome just rolled his eyes and continued walking.

The next morning, everyone was present at the conference room of the Solairte's airship. Extra rooms and beds were available for the extra guests for the night prior. It was then that Alex spoke.

"I'm sure you all have many questions, luckily I have all the answers." Alex started.

"What's the meaning of life?" Sonic blurted, trying to lighten the mood with a smirk, Tails chuckling with him.

"42," Alex answered nonchalantly, earning a laugh from the two-tailed fox and a dumb-founded look from Richter.

"Wait, what?" The orange echidna finally spoke. "Why is the meaning of life 42?"

Alex just stared blankly at Richter who was expecting an answer.

"…..The color twelve. Can I get on with my explanation?" Alex asked irritably.

Richter just looked more confused than ever.

"Anyway," Alex started. "Most of you want to know how I met Silver, who's from at least two hundred years into the future."

Everyone minus Alex and Silver nodded silently, waiting for Alex to continue.

"Well, here's how it all started…"

* * *

**Short but at least I updated. Now we get to see how Alex even got to Mobius. **

**Also, a fun fact. I'm currently in the design for Tails in this story. If you want to know what he looks like in this story, let me know. If I get enough requests, I'll link you to my livestream in which I'll draw Tails for all to see, and chat with you guys while I'm at it. **


	16. Act 2 Chapter 3: Glimpse of the Future

****Sorry about the massive delay. I had life to deal with. Also, for those that talk with me on either skype or Windows live messenger know why I was so busy. Those of you that don't, I have a temporary technitian job at the base working on airplanes. (I seriously feel like Tails when I work. XD) I'm shooting for a permanent slot. There as well.

Well enough of that, enjoy this overdue chapter!

* * *

**Act 2: Time Lag**

Chapter 3: Glimpse of the Future.

"Well, here's how it all started…" Alex began. He paused a bit, thinking to himself, and then looked up when an idea struck him.

"You know what? Better yet, let me show you."

Everyone but Nero and Alex looked at each other in confusion. Alex raised two fingers and placed them on his forehead. His eyes suddenly flashed solid blue and a dome of Kojima energy enveloped the room. Suddenly the energy flashed around them, and the group appeared to be in the middle of the main square of New Mobotropolis. The difference however, is that the sky was dark and cloudy, plumes of smoke was rising from some of the buildings while the majority of them were either in ruins or abandoned. Alex seemed to have disappeared.

"What the, where are we?" Sonic asked, slightly frightened at the sight.

"This is what's left of New Mobotropolis two hundred years from now. " Silver answered.

Suddenly, a few yards from the group, a bright flash of blue light erupted from thin air, followed by a dome of blue energy. When the dome dissipated, a figure stood, Alex arriving at the right place, but the wrong time.

"Hey Alex, why did you bring us to this time?" Chrome asked the silver wolf. Alex didn't respond as he continued to look at his surroundings.

"It's no use trying to talk to him. Right now Alex is showing us his memories." Silver explained. Chrome and the rest of the group nodded in understanding and watched.

* * *

It took a while for Alex to notice his new "attire", giving out a startled yelp when he noticed he now had a tail among his other wolfish features. Most of the group laughed at his reaction until a shrill roar sounded off in an alley near where Alex stood. The wolf turned his attention to the sound, on guard, waiting for the source to reveal itself. After a few seconds, the source emerged from the alley. The sight disturbed all who laid eyes on it, minus Silver.

The creature was grotesque. It appeared to be what was once a Mobian cat, the skin was torn in several places, it had long, scything claws on long appendages sprouting from its back. The muscles in its arms were slightly bigger than normal with smaller claws at the fingertips. Its lower jaw had a black carapace with large set of lower saber teeth. The black carapace covered parts of the body and most of its tail, forming a sharp barb at the tip. The last defining feature, and the most disturbing was its eyes. There were four of them, glowing a sickly yellow.

Alex's eyes widened in shock. He knew what this creature was, even though it was a mobian version of it. The creature took the opportunity to lunge at Alex while he was in shock. Little did it know, Alex was ready. His eyes flashed for a second and the creature landed on the ground, stopping its advance on Alex. It just stood there in front of Alex and then turned to walk away with a growl. Alex shook his head and was about to walk around to explore when suddenly a car frame lifted off the ground and flew at him. Thinking quickly, Alex jumped _towards_ the incoming car frame, diving through the open areas of the frame and landed gracefully on his feet. He turned to watch the car frame smash into a building wall and drop to the ground.

"I finally found you Azazel!" Silver's voice echoed out.

Everyone watching the memory turned to Silver, wondering why he shouted that out. All the white hedgehog did was shake his head and point to the rooftop of a ruined building. Everyone followed the hedgehog's gesture and saw Silver himself, but through Alex's memory. Silver was standing on the roof looking down at Alex, wisps of light blue energy coming off his body. Alex could tell by the energy Silver was visibly giving off that the hedgehog was angry; very, very angry.

Alex kept on guard as Silver went on.

"You will pay for turning this world into a wasteland!"

"What are you talking about?" Alex yelled back, trying to find out what was going on.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Silver yelled in fury as he swung his hands in wide arcs, creating a series of psychokinetic blades. The blades flew at Alex with great speed, the wolf barely dodging them as he jumped and rolled to the side. He kept his eyes on Silver, waiting for a follow up attack. Silver, as Alex predicted, did follow up by raising his hands in front of him and brought his hands together.

Alex didn't have time to dodge part of the street folding up from his sides about to crush him, and released a small, but intense shockwave using his own psychokinesis to blow away the incoming asphalt. Silver stood slightly shocked.

"How did you develop psychokinesis?!" The white hedgehog yelled.

Alex just stood his ground, ready for another attack. Silver just growled and released another barrage of psychokinetic blades. Alex raised his hands quickly, willing the ground in front of him to rise up and shield him from the blades. Shortly after the barrage of blades ended, Alex balled his fists then flicked his fingers out in Silver's direction. The chunks of the ground compressed and hardened, then broke into smaller pebbles, shooting at Silver like bullets. The hedgehog quickly flew off to his right, dodging Alex's counterattack, the crude bullets tearing apart the building behind him. As Silver was taking evasive maneuvers, he spun his body, extending a hand and willed a trashed car to fly at high speed towards Alex. The gray wolf used his free hand and made a karate chop motion at the incoming car, slicing it clean in half with his own psychic blade. The car halves flew past him on either side, but Alex realized too late that inside the car, Silver hid two spheres of energy, which detonated when the car was at his sides. Alex's barrage stopped and gave Silver a few seconds to catch his breath. He focused on the cloud of smoke his trap produced, searching for any sign of movement. Silver's eyes narrowed when he heard Alex chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Silver yelled in half frustration.

"Heh heh…another psychokinetic, how interesting." Alex started as the dust began to clear. "You sir….hedgehog, are very amusing." Alex finished with a smirk on his face.

Silver got on his guard, waiting for Alex to make his move. Alex's smirk disappeared however.

"I'm going to say this one last time. I'm. Not. Azazel." Alex said with a warning tone.

"Don't try to deny it! I saw you command one of your infected victims!" Silver shouted.

Suddenly, Alex swung his glowing hands together. Silver was about to react until he heard a loud grunt from behind him. He turned to look behind him and then his face paled, nearly the same color as his fur. His ears fell flat on his head when he was face to face with a black and yellow armored monstrosity that is Azazel, frozen on the spot by Alex's own psychokinesis.

* * *

Tails and Richter's eyes widened at the sight of Azazel…because it was the same creature Nero transformed into during the fight with Dr. Reynard. They both looked towards Nero, who had a surprised expression.

Nero wasn't surprised though, he was terrified. He was terrified of two things. First, the form of Azazel, he has never seen himself become such a monster. And second, if nothing is done, and soon…he will lose this internal battle with this _thing. _If he loses against Azazel, Nero will lose his life to it, and then, so will everyone else. Alex's memory proves it.

* * *

Going back to the memory, Silver seemed frozen in shock by Azazel's sudden appearance. Azazel's body was in such a position that it was about to impale Silver through his back.

"Move it!" Alex yelled while he struggled to keep his hold on Azazel, but Silver stood frozen in place, not moving a muscle.

"God damn it!" Alex yelled in frustration as he jumped up to Silver and knocked him away, jumping back himself when his hold over the viral beast broke. Azazel was free and continued his lunge, destroying the part of the building Silver was standing on. Alex reoriented himself in midair, skidded a few feet on the ground, and faced the Azazel. Alex tried to focus, searching for any sign of its host. To his surprise, he found a faint consciousness within Azazel's primal instincts. Before he could reach out to it with his mind, Azazel swung his right arm in a wide arc, unleashing a volley of black spikes. Alex reflexively threw up his hands, willing a section of the street in front of him to rise and create a wall, shielding him from the spikes. One spike pierced through the makeshift shield and stopped mere inches from Alex's face, a yellow liquid seeping out of the pointed end of the spike. Seeing this horrified him, mainly because this is how Azazel spread his infection. Suddenly a sudden realization hit him.

"_That hedgehog!"_

With a quick pushing motion with both hands, Alex forced his makeshift shield at Azazel, pushing the creature off the destroyed rooftop. Almost immediately, Alex rushed to Silver, who was shaking his head, recovering from his initial shock. Just as Alex reached Silver, Azazel burst through the destroyed building, grabbing Alex by the neck and slamming him into a wall of another building. Alex tried to claw at his foe's armored hand, but couldn't pierce through Azazel's protective exoskeleton. Alex watched in horror as Azazel's free arm had some of his carapace grow over his hand, creating an arm blade. Alex's mind went into overdrive in his panicked state, causing everything to slow down. Alex realized he's going through what he calls "Mental Time-shift" , an ability where his thought processes accelerate to extreme levels, creating the effect of time slowing down. During the Mental Time-shift, Alex was able to find the faint consciousness. To his surprise, it spoke to him through telepathy.

"_No….time…."_

"_Damien?!"_

"_I don't have…much left. You…have to…destroy him...and me."_

"_But…there has to be another way! I just….I just can't…."_

"_I'm sorry."_

Time returned to normal speed for Alex, as it did, both Azazel and Alex witnessed a visible red glow travel from Azazel's chest, through his arm holding Alex, and into Alex's chest. Suddenly, two glowing red circles with what appeared to be arcane runes in them appeared on Alex's chest and forehead, his signature blue energy creeping out of the edge of the circles like it was cracking his body. Alex's eyes widened as they turned solid blue, his irises a lighter shade, and his pupils glowing white. Azazel's eyes widened as well, trying to comprehend what was happening.

* * *

The group watching the memory was confused at what was happening, except for one. Nero stared at Alex in the memory. He knew what was happening, and he was scared.

"_I never thought it had to come to using __**that**__."_

* * *

Alex started to tear up.

"_No….no no no no no. Why?"_

"_There has to be…... nothing left."_

Azazel gathered himself and lifted his blade, ready to impale Alex.

"_Please… Damien please don't!"_

"_Releasing….Vanguard Restriction...…level 0."_

Alex's body erupted with semi-transparent black energy outlined in dark blue. The living virus' eyes widened. It was the first, and last time it felt fear. Suddenly everything went white, the group watching as they were the only ones left. The last thing they heard before the memory faded was Nero's strained and echoed voice.

"_I'm so sorry."_

* * *

It's short in my opinion, but I hope that I made Silver somewhat badass. If not, well damn. In any case, I hope I don't get severely distracted and/or too busy to write again.


	17. Act 2 Chapter 4: Family is Forever

**Hey I updated sooner than I expected. That's good. In any case, this chap is kinda short but it has some character development in my opinion. Take it as you read it. **

**EDIT: I'm such a noob at this site, I updated this chapter and changed a small thing with it. I didn't see the update chapter option so I deleted and reposted this chap. My bad.**

* * *

**Act 2: Time Lag**

Chapter 4: Family is Forever

* * *

The group who witnessed the horrors of what was to come if nothing was done to destroy Azazel found themselves back into the meeting room of the echidna brother's ship. All was silent for a good 4 minutes, until Knuckles broke it.

"What exactly did we just see?"

"That…" Alex started, his eyes returning to normal. "Was a projection of my memories. Like Silver said, that time period is around 200 years from now. What you just saw…." Alex just looked down, sadness in his voice. "Was Azazel."

"That monster, right?" Sonic asked, clearly troubled.

"…..yes. Sometime between now and when I arrived, Nero lost against Azazel, and then he spread his virus throughout the world, turning it into a blighted wasteland." Alex explained.

"Then we'll help Nero fight this Azazel guy and none of that will happen then!" Sonic announced.

"It's more complicated than that." Tails interrupted.

"Say what?" the blue blur deadpanned.

"Well…." Tails started, but then he looked around.

"Wait, where's Nero?" Tails realized. Everyone looked around the room until Chrome spotted Nero outside through the window.

"What's he doing outside?" the white echidna asked to no one in particular. Everyone looked out the window to see Nero pacing back and forth, looked severely conflicted. Alex just promptly got up and headed outside. Everyone followed close behind.

Outside, Nero was deep in thought, as well as trying to calm down after the revelation that he will lose against Azazel.

"Nero."

The gray wolf just continued to pace back and forth, seemingly ignoring Alex.

"Are you alright?" his brother asked.

"No I'm not alright!" Nero yelled in frustration. This was a first for everyone to see Nero this frustrated.

"I just found out that no matter what I do, I'm still going to turn into that _thing_ and wipe out the planet's population!"

"You have to calm down, Nero" Alex calmly advised.

"HOW CAN I KEEP CALM?!" the red eyed wolf yelled as black kojima energy started to wisp around his body. "I WASN'T ABLE TO STOP HIM NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRIED AND BECAUSE OF THAT HE KILLED HER!" Nero screamed, tears running down his face. "He…he….and I…I couldn't….." the distressed wolf stuttered before he just broke down. Nero fell to his hands and knees, letting it all out. Alex was by his side in moments, pulling him into a hug, trying to calm his little brother down.

The group witnessed what just happened, feeling sorry for Nero.

"Why can't we be like that?" Richter asked Chrome. Everyone minus the wolf brothers glared at Richter.

"…what?" The orange echidna asked sheepishly. Chrome just promptly smacked Richter upside the head. As the two echidna brothers started to bicker while Chrome was dragging Richter back to their airship; Silver, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails just stared at Alex and Nero.

"I don't get it, why is Alex comforting him like that? He should just kill him now so Azazel won't infect the planet." Silver said with agitation in his voice.

"You don't get it, do you?" Tails started, glaring at the silver hedgehog.

"Get what? Alex can end the nightmare before it even starts. What's not to get?" Silver shot back.

"Alex, no matter what you tell him, will never kill Nero." Tails explained with a hint of malice in his voice.

"And why not? This is the perfect opportunity to destroy Azazel!"

"Alex doesn't have it in him to kill his younger brother. That's why."

Silver just stood there dumbfounded.

"He's…..his younger …brother?" Silver barely managed to say.

"Jeez even I knew that." Knuckles said, rolling his eyes. He looked back at Nero, who continued to cry into Alex's shoulder, letting out soft whimpers. "It does explain that though…"

"Explain what?" Sonic asked, now confused at what Knuckles was saying.

"Back when both Tails and Nero were knocked out, Nero started crying in his sleep." Knuckles explained.

"Seriously?" both Sonic and Tails said in unison.

"Yeah, he kept saying 'I'm so sorry' over and over."

Sonic and Tails looked back at the crying gray wolf and couldn't help but feel sorry for him, but now another question has presented itself. Who was "_her"_?

"_**In answer to your question, 'her' name was Sarah."**_

Sonic and Knuckles looked around trying to find the source of the voice, only to find Alex looking directly at them.

"_**Sarah was the only person to see past Nero's 'condition' and love him for who he was. This is why Nero fell deeply in love with her. She made him feel normal." **_Alex explained through telepathy. Tails deduced that Alex didn't want Nero to hear him talk about this subject without making him more upset than he is now. The only thing Sonic and Knuckles were thinking was just how powerful Alex's mental abilities really are, aside from going through the initial disbelief that Nero was even capable of falling in love. Silver was still trying to get past the fact that Alex was related to Nero.

Everyone's thoughts were interrupted with Alex's hand began to glow blue and placed it on Nero's head, promptly knocking him out.

"Silver, go tell those echidna brothers that they can leave now. Sonic and Knuckles, stay out of this. Tails, keep them out of this." Alex directed with a stern voice. Silver just shrugged and headed off to the echidna brother's airship, not trying to argue with the light gray wolf.

"Wait, what's going on? What are you trying to keep us out of?" Knuckles demanded. Just before Knuckles could say anything else, Richter and Chrome's airship came to life and took off as Silver walked back to the group.

"Did I miss anything?" the silver hedgehog asked.

"Oh, Silver. Make sure you don't jump the gun. Tails, make sure Silver doesn't jump the gun." Alex instructed.

"Wait what? How am I supposed to do any of that? And what's going on?" Tails exclaimed, seriously confused.

Alex just sighed in irritation before continuing. "Just don't butt in, this is a family issue."

As he said that, Nero started to stir followed by a distorted growl. Alex reacted quickly and jumped back, his expression grim. His hands began to glow with black Kojima energy outlined in blue.

"Releasing ability restriction levels three...two...one. High threat level recognized, initiating Tyrant Vanguard. Vanguard restrictions to be held lifted until threat has been successfully…pacified." Alex recited out loud.

"What is he saying?" Sonic asked to no one in particular.

"He's basically telling his powers what to do…" Tails answered, figuring out what Alex was doing. "Nero told me that Kojima energy is somewhat alive, and it works best if it's instructed on what to do. This is Alex's way of going into Vanguard, but something is different about it…"

"What do you mean?"

"He said 'restrictions" Tails answered.

Nero's eyes shot open, revealing a frightening change. They were yellow, his pupils have become more reptilian, and another pair of eyes opened above the originals. Nero slowly got to his feet, growling as he did so. His attention was focused on Alex, whose body was radiating a black and blue aura.

"So….Samael…" Alex began; his voice echoed and gruff. "You just can't leave my brother alone, can you?"

Nero or "Samael" as Alex called him, just glared.

"C'mere pup, let's play." Alex taunted, beckoning Samael with his hands.

Without hesitation, Samael got on all fours, and leaped at Alex.

* * *

**Well damn, that seemed too short. Oh well, this is proof that this story is still alive as well as me. Read and review.**

**Also, I have a drawing on my deviant art page of Nero and Samael, well what he looks like possessing Nero anyway. Check it out if you like.**

**To those who want to see Tails in my design, please be patient, I'm redoing his visual design as well as designing his Cyber Vanguard. Also Jericho.**


	18. Act 2 Chapter 5: The Corrupted Archer

******That was quick huh? Another short one, but I feel it's better this way. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

**Act 2 Time Lag**

Chapter 5: The Corrupted Archer.

Samael was mere inches away from Alex until he was enveloped in a blue/black aura and suspended in midair. Alex's eyes became dark blue, almost sapphire.

"You're not going to take my brother away from me." Alex snarled.

Samael just growled, but what happened next surprised everyone, including Alex.

"**VAnGuaRd…"**

Suddenly, eight blades appeared behind Samael, similar to Nero's Dragonblade Vanguard. These blades however, were black and yellow, the edge of each blade serrated, with a glowing yellow stone at the hilt that resembled an eye. All of the blades then pointed at Alex, about to impale the shocked wolf until Alex regained his senses and discharged a small scale shockwave, knocking away Samael. The viral possessed wolf back flipped and landed on his feet with ease. He crouched and spread his arms in a threatening pose, his blackened claws extended. The eight blades spread out as well, giving Samael an intimidating visage.

"Oh of course he can…" Alex growled. He raised his glowing hand, ready to immobilize Samael again. Upon reflex, the eight blades moved in front of Samael like a protective wall. To Alex's dismay, he wasn't able to influence neither Samael nor his blades.

"What the…?!"

Samael just grinned sadistically until the ground beneath him started to rumble and quake. Before he could react, the ground erupted around him and encased him in compressed earth.

* * *

The group that Alex wanted to stay back stood helplessly. They had no idea what to do in this sort of situation, and it was increasingly making them tense, especially Silver. All of them were ready to jump in the fight if things got out of hand despite Alex's request. Suddenly, Silver's ears twitched as he felt an overwhelming power growing coming from Samael. Inconspicuously, Silver backed away from the rest of the group.

* * *

Alex, confident that his hold over Samael was strong enough, tried to reach into his mind, attempting to break Samael's hold over Nero. Without warning, Samael erupted from the ground in front of Alex, his body covered in the signature viral black armor. Since Alex was too focused on reaching into Samael's mind, he wasn't able to react fast enough.

Before Samael was able to dig his extended claws into Alex's body, a black arrow struck Samael's armored face, breaking off a piece revealing part of his eyes underneath. Samael let out a distorted screech as he gripped his face and backed off. He looked up to try to find the source of the black arrow. As he searched, his eyes fell upon his assailant.

Alex followed Samael's line of sight as well as Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. Off to right behind the group was Silver, holding a black, demonic-like longbow. Both of his hands were covered in a black armor with glowing yellow cracks. Suddenly, another black arrow extended from the palm of Silver's free hand, and readied another shot.

In response, Samael released an aura of hellish yellow energy, and distorted his image, making it difficult to track him. Silver loosed an arrow, the shot going straight through Samael, as if going through a hologram. Silver just scowled. Slowly, his eyes changed from gold to a sickening pale yellow as his pupils became reptilian. Then, three more eyes opened, a pair slanted down above his original eyes, and the last opened sideways at his forehead, all yellow and reptilian as well. With a scoff, Silver readied another black arrow and pulled back. As he pulled back, the bow split apart into four pieces and levitated around Silver's hand, creating an "X" shape. The black arrow became covered in a yellow aura, twisting around the tip all the way to Silver's arm. All five of his eyes narrowed, his vision now piercing through Samael's veil.

"I SeE yoU…" Silver said tauntingly with a now distorted voice. At that, he loosed the charged arrow. Mere milliseconds after letting go of the arrow, with his now free hand, Silver pushed out, further accelerating the arrow with his psychokinesis. The arrow accelerated to the point where it broke the sound barrier. Samael wasn't able to react fast enough to dodge it completely, the arrow piercing through his armor easily and through his right shoulder.

The severe amounts of trauma caused Samael roar and take a few steps back before falling on his back, his mind barely keeping him conscious.

"What the hell are you doing Silver!?" Alex screamed.

"oH cALm DoWn. He'Ll LivE" Silver said with a bored tone. The black armor around his arms as well as the bow vaporized into black mist. His extra eyes then closed, leaving no trace that they were even there, his normal eyes returning to their golden color.

"You're welcome by the way." Silver added, his voice returning to normal.

Alex just growled in frustration as he walked over to the barely conscious Samael. The wolf knelt down and placed his hand over his forehead, energy flowing from his hand and into Samael. The living virus closed his eyes as his armor disintegrated, releasing his hold over Nero. With a relieved sigh, the aura around Alex faded, signifying that his restrictions are now in effect.

"All I was able to do was seal Azazel's base forms, Samael and Azreal. Their minds are going to be locked away for the time being." Alex explained out loud.

"Why couldn't you just destroy their minds?" Silver asked disapprovingly.

"I don't want to risk damaging Nero's mind in the process if I were to do that. He's going to have to destroy them himself, so for now, I'll seal them away until he is ready to face them." Alex answered, giving Silver a suspicious glare. "Since we're on the subject, how long were you infected?"

"I'll tell after you tell me why you didn't really release to Level One." Silver retorted.

Alex chuckled. "I decided against it in the last second. Level One is reserved for the most, dire situations. Now, how long were you infected?"

"I'd say about…two years, give or take, before I met you." Silver said calmly. "My mental abilities were strong enough to overcome the virus' primal instinct, preventing it from taking over. Yet, despite that, I was still considered a _monster _by everyone who knew" he finished, saying the last part in a strained whisper. Silver stared at the ground, his ears flat on his head and fists shook slightly in anger.

"No."

The silver hedgehog looked up at Alex in surprise, not expecting that.

"Both of your attacks could've been fatal, yet you held back. When he was on the ground helpless, you could've finished him off but didn't. Why?"

"Because…" Silver trailed off in thought. "Nero was cursed with his infection, and from his reaction earlier, he just….wanted to be free from it…just like…..me." Silver said, realization coming to him.

"So, are you really a monster?" Alex asked as he picked up his younger brother and walked towards the rest of the group. Silver just stood there in thought, contemplating what Alex asked him.

"_Am I?"_

* * *

Alex, carrying an unconscious Nero, walked up to Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. All three of them cautiously looked at Nero, as if waiting for him to spring up and attack him, or Kaiser spring up and scare the living crap out of them. Hoping for the latter.

"We need a place to stay." Alex said bluntly.

The abrupt comment knocked all three of them out of their thoughts as they looked at the older wolf. Alex stood there waiting for a response, slowly growing impatient.

"Oh, um, yeah I got some room at my place." Tails said, finally finding his voice.

"I really hope you don't mind us being there for a while. All the crap Nero just went through, he'll be out for at least a week." Alex said, looking at Nero in slight worry.

"It's alright, honestly. Nero saved my life, it's the least I could do." Tails explained.

"That explains how you got your powers then" Alex realized.

"So what exactly just happened?" Sonic asked, Knuckles nodding since he was curious as well.

"To make a long story short, there was an accident in a research facility back home. Nero was exposed to an interstellar radiation. It corrupted a part of Nero's crystal and it then began to produce a virulent form of Kojima." Alex explained. "For now, the entity known as Azazel is sealed away."

"But you called him Samael, didn't you?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes, you see, our powers come from these crystals in our bodies. Since the energy they produce is semi-sentient, it took a part of our being, our 'soul' if you will, and used it to create another entity based on who we are. Our 'doppelgangers', so to speak, is the end result. I do not know the reason for their creation, possibly to house the excess energy it continues to produce when the host doesn't require any, or maybe it's more alive than thought possible, and using the part of our being as a base form of a 'soul' to interact with the outside world. There could be many reasons for this phenomenon" Alex explained. "When Nero's crystal was corrupted by the radiation, the corrupted Kojima energy slowly developed a mind of its own, using Nero's base instincts. Samael is Nero's corrupted counterpart, Azreal is Kaiser's. These two entities have not yet evolved enough to completely merge into the entity known as Azazel. And if that happens…." Alex looked troubled as he trailed off.

"Then we better make sure that doesn't happen." Sonic said with determination. "We'll do anything we can to help!"

Alex just smiled at the gesture, with all this support, maybe Nero's nightmare can end. He looked at his peacefully sleeping brother in his arms.

"_I can only hope that he will be able to destroy Samael and Azreal before it's too late." _Alex thought as he looked up to see Silver talking with the rest of the gang, reassuring them that he's no threat, despite his infection.

"_I can't imagine losing another brother, not again."_

* * *

**Sorry it's so short. Kind of wanted to get the main idea of this chapter out before I lost it to writers block. Also, I drew Silver in his "viral" state. Check my deviantart page. Anyway, Read and Review!**


	19. Act 2 Epilogue: His Brother's Keeper

****Alright, here's the end of Act 2! Here we get to know Alex a little more. This chapter will make you laugh, if not, then you are boring and I no longer wish to speak with you. On with the chapter. Oh yeah, all Sega characters belong to...well Sega. The non-Sega characters doesn't belong to Sega, they belong to me.

* * *

**Act 2: Time Lag**

**Epilogue: His Brother's Keeper**

It has been three days since the incident with Samael. Nero is lying in bed, (after Alex changed his clothes out) still unconscious. Alex checked on his little brother every half hour since then. Silver was relaxing by a tree near Tails' workshop, flying paper airplanes with his mind. Tails was doing what he usually does, fix his prized jets. Since he gained his new powers, he was able to work faster and more efficiently. That, and Jericho was a good work partner since he actually knows what Tails is talking about. There was a few times where Alex joined and helped the twin tailed fox with his work. It was those times when Tails got to know Alex, which was quite an experience.

* * *

**Tails POV**

Okay, since the old gatling gun was totaled, I had to make a new one. This one is almost identical to the first, except that it's smaller. That way, when I go into Vanguard, I can re-install it. I'll have to thank Alex for giving me the idea. Heh…Alex. Can't believe how smart he is and at the same time how much of a total klutz he can be. Seriously, it's so funny to watch. He also makes it more amusing when he drops tools too. Every time he accidentally knocks over a tool and makes the loud clanging noise, he just points at it and yells "OOOOHHHHH!" before he picks it up.* Seriously, what is up with that? Then there's him working around and under the jet.

"_**Remember when he hit his head on the stabilizer?" **_Jericho asked with a chuckle.

"_Yeah, I don't know how you can be that smart and still hit your head on the same spot four times."_

"_**Then he yells 'Who the hell put this jet here!' or 'Damn it! That's a jet!"***_

We both just laughed. Who would expect Alex to be related to Nero after all that?

In the middle of our laughter, the subject or our internal conversation walked right in.

"So, it seems like Nero should be waking up soon, which is good, cause he needs a shower. I love him to bits, but I'm not gonna bathe him." Alex announced. "Anyway, have you practiced with your telekinesis?" The gray wolf asked.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I have telekinesis. Funny story on how I discovered that. I was loading a bomb on the jet while discussing how Alex uses his telekinesis. While I was still under the bomb, Alex was explaining that telekinesis is usually unlocked under a stressful situation, like how he discovered his. Right when he finished explaining, he pressed the ordinance jettison button, which dropped the bomb with me under it. Two things after that little incident, One: I figured out I had telekinesis, and Two: I figured out how Alex's voice reaches a high pitch when he falls off a ladder by "accident".

Alex walked under the jet, where I was working on the hydraulic system.

"I practice from time to time." I responded.

"All right then, just be sure you do practice." Alex said as he turned to walk out from under the plane, until he smacked face first into the stabilizer…again.

"Ow! Jet! Face! GAH." Alex yelled.

I busted into a laughed as I pointed my finger at the chalk board on the wall. With a little concentration, I willed the chalk to draw a tally mark, making six tallies under the title "Alex's Faceplants".

"See? I do practice from time to time; this is one of those times." I said as I laughed. As I continued to laugh, Alex responded with snapping his fingers. Suddenly, one of the oil lines opened and sprayed me in the face.

"_Oh…it's on."_

**Alex POV**

Okay, let's see how Nero is doing. I walked into his room and quickly noticed that he was tossing and turning in his sleep. Worried, I pulled up a chair next to his bed and began to lightly scratch the top of his head. When we were younger, scratching the top of Nero's head always seems to relax him in his sleep. Weird I know, but it works. As I scratched him, he naturally began to calm down…wait, why is he tilting his head? Okay…let me scratch there….

_Thump thump thump_

I pulled my hand back, and the noise stopped. I scratched him in the same spot and it started again. I pull the sheets off of him and scratch again. Oh my butter sweet Jebus THAT IS _ADORABLE!_ I stop for a second and punch in a few commands in my HADES gauntlet and scratched Nero again. _Jack-freaken-pot._

**3****rd**** Person.**

Later the next day, Alex has called Tails to Nero's room. As Tails entered the room, he spotted Alex sitting next to Nero's unconscious form. Then he noticed Silver leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room with his arms crossed.

"Oh good, you're here…" Alex said with a serious tone.

"What do you need me for?" Tails asked, slightly worried about why Alex is so serious. Silver's expression held some curiousness to it, but said nothing.

"It seems Nero is able to wake up but something is preventing it. I know a way to wake him up, but it's very risky. I brought you both here because I'll teach you how to do it and do it properly." Alex said, sounding serious. Tails hasn't seen Alex this serious before. The older wolf turned to Nero and rose up his index finger. What happened next was possibly the most amazing technique that left Silver and Tails speechless. Alex stuck his finger in his mouth then stuck it in Nero's ear, yelling "WET WILLY!" Nero immediately shot up screaming with a disgusted face. Alex just pulled his hand back laughing uncontrollably. Tails and Silver's minds, possibly for the first time ever, blanked out.

Nero was cringing in disgust, wiping his ear clean while he constantly swore under his breath.

"What. The. HELL?!" The enraged wolf yelled as he glared daggers at his brother.

"You being lazy, that's what the hell." Alex retorted.

Nero's eye twitched in annoyance. Before he could say anything Alex beat him to it.

"I have even better blackmail material to use against you to counter yours." Alex said nonchalantly.

"You're bluffing." Nero shot back.

Alex responded with punching in a few commands in his HADES gauntlet. A holographic video projection appeared before Nero showing the events that transpired the day before. The video contained Alex scratching the back of Nero's neck, which resulted in Nero unconsciously kicking his leg. To top it off, Nero's tongue rolled out of his mouth as his leg kicked faster.

Nero was horrified to the very core at what he just saw. This is much worse than the whole shaking the water off thing.

"See? _Much_ better blackmail material." Alex announced proudly.

Nero was about to yell at his older brother until they both heard two loud thuds. The wolf brothers looked at both Silver and Tails, passed out on the floor with their eyes swirling. Apparently seeing Alex wake up Nero with a wet willy, plus the video of Nero acting like a puppy in his sleep was too much for their brains to comprehend.

The wolves looked at each other in confusion.

"I will get you for this…" Nero warned.

"I love you too." Alex responded.

"Now go take a shower, you've been in bed for four days and you reek." Alex added as he walked out.

Nero sighed as he shook his head, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

"_I will get back at Alex for this…" _Nero thought as he showered.

"_No you won't~!" _Alex responded telepathically.

"_Damn it."_

* * *

Short? Yes. Do I give a damn? Hell no.

Oh yeah, the asterisks. I will use those from time to time to explain what the certain event means. Both of them are actual events. The first one was when I was deployed to Afghanistan. My job was to work on jets. (I FEEL LIKE TAILS WHEN I WORK hurr hurr) Every time someone drops a tool, no matter how small it is, EVERYONE hears it. One of my co-workers would randomly yell "OOOOHHHHH!" and point in the direction of the dropped tool. Funniest thing ever, well to me anyway.

The second asterisk was me. Working under the jets can be painful if you're not paying attention. I _constantly _hit my head on various parts of the jet, mainly the vertical stabilizer. I then yell out, "Ow! That's a jet!" or "Who dafuq put this jet here?" I love my job.

Well that ends this Act. The next one should be interesting. I will be introducing more characters, not mine, not yet anyway. And these characters will be ones you didn't expect. Should have more action in it, plus Tails being a badass, cause that's what I love to see, Tails being a badass.

Next, Act 3: The Hunt.

Reviews are love.


	20. Act 3: The Hunt Ch 1: Standoff

**Really sorry about the delay. I had a lot of issues to deal with. In any case, let's start this thing up again.**

* * *

**Act 3: The Hunt**

Chapter 1: An Old Fashioned Standoff.

Throughout the house that Tails owned, the smell of coffee brewing was the most abundant aroma. It was this aroma that stirred Tails and Silver from their recent "incident". Slowly getting up, they notice that they were lying on a sofa and recliner, respectively. Both Tails and Silver were about ask what happened before their thought was interrupted by the sound of sipping. Turning their heads, they see Alex sitting on an armchair, sipping a mug of coffee, Nero sitting to his left on the sofa Tails was previously laying on, a mug of coffee in his hand as well.

"In answer to your obviously un-asked question, you both witnessed something so incredible and impossible that your ability to take in such information reached critical mass and imploded." Alex explained, taking another sip. Tails shook his head and Silver just shrugged his shoulders. "By the way, since we'll be staying here a while, do you know any place that could be hiring? Well, any place that's not food service and preferably anything that deals with maintenance?" Alex asked, finishing his coffee.

Tails tilted his head in thought. What places could Alex work in? "There is an antique shop that needs a few hands, I know the owner since he and I have worked on the same team fighting Eggman in the past." Tails suggested. Almost immediately after, Nero's ears perked in interest at the suggestion. Tails noticed this and continued on. "The last time I was there, he had a nice collection of antique swords…"

That did it.

"Where can I find this antique shop?" Nero asked, which almost sounded like a demand.

"It's in the center of New Mobotropolice, a block away from the palace."

"There's a palace here?" Nero asked, caught off guard by the mention of "palace".

"This city is governed by a hierarchy?" Alex asked, slightly interested.

"Yes, and yes. Prince Elias and Princess Sally Acorn are technically the rulers of this city, even if they hate being called "rulers". Elias makes the decisions on what is added to the city as well as being the commanding official for the military. Sally takes care of the people's needs as well as overseeing the trade network. The only thing out of their jurisdiction is GUN, or the Guardian Unit of Nations. They are basically global police so they have a base of operations in every major city. They aren't a bad organization to work for. You may want to look into it, Alex." Tails explained.

Both wolves processed the information in silence before they both came to a decision.

"I'll look into this antique shop." Nero declared.

"I'll look into this GUN organization, but they may be a last resort." Alex mentioned. "We'll start tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" Tails asked this time.

"Because, your jet isn't done yet and I want to finish it by tonight. I hate leaving things unfinished." The elder wolf answered.

As Tails and Alex began to discuss aircraft mechanics, Nero finished his coffee and proceeded to walk to the kitchen until Silver caught his eye. Apparently Silver has kept his eyes on Nero the entire time. The both of them stared at each other for what seemed like hours.

"…Can I help you?" Nero asked bluntly.

"No, but I can possibly help you." Silver answered.

Not expecting that, Nero nearly dropped the mug. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh I don't know; maybe help you control this…" Silver said as he raised one hand, black organic armor covering it and forming sharp claws at the tips of his fingers.

Nero just stared intently at Silver's armored hand, seemingly in a trance. The armor then began to liquefy and slowly disappear as the silver hedgehog absorbed it back into his body.

"Tell me…." Nero started, causing Silver to raise a brow. "Tell me everything."

* * *

Later that evening, Tails and Alex were in the hangar applying the finishing touches to Tails' new jet. It was a miracle that they were able to finish it, considering that Alex has smacked his head on various parts of the jet throughout the day. For Tails, it was hard to believe how Alex hasn't gained a concussion from his many mishaps, but that's a mystery to solve for later.

"Hey Tails, I'm gonna take a break, I'll be right back." Alex declared as he wiped off his hands of grease.

"Sure thing, I'll just finish up here." Tails acknowledged while he inspected the new nose gun.

A few seconds after Alex left the hangar, Tails' ears flicked to the side as a flash followed by a sudden gust of wind blew through the open hangar doors. Donning his sunglasses, the twin-tailed fox turned his head to the unexpected visitors. He turned his head back and continued to work as he addressed his new guests in a surprisingly calm manner.

"So, how can I help Shadow and Omega this evening?"

The hedgehog in question was taken off guard from Tails' calm demeanor. He expected the young fox to face them with some form of timidness. Quickly gathering himself, Shadow went straight to business.

"I was…."

"Sent by GUN to investigate an energy spike that was discovered a few days ago and you're here to ask me if I know anything about it." Tails interrupted. Oh he loved doing that.

Shadow stood dumbstruck for half a second before he narrowed his eyes.

"Yes. So tell me everything you know about it." Shadow demanded.

"SHADOW, I DETECT THE PRESENCE OF THE UNKNOWN ENERGY FROM TARGET: MILES PROWER." Omega announced.

"You have the source of that energy. We need you to hand it over to GUN for study." Shadow said as he glared at Tails.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, doing so would result in, undesirable consequences. I'm also afraid that I have to ask you to leave, I need to finish my work."

"I'm authorized to use force if you do not cooperate." Shadow warned, pulling out his issued handgun.

"You know, that would scare me, but then again, I have a bigger gun." Tails said, turning his head towards the duo; the fox was slightly amused at Shadow' incredulous expression.

Before Shadow could retort, Tails pointed at the chain gun currently mounted in his jet.

"Do you honestly believe I'll give you time to climb in your jet to use that?" Shadow asked in annoyance. Tails was clearly trying his patience.

"Oh no….no...no…because…" all of a sudden, Tails touched his jet, sparks of blue energy dancing across the chain gun, causing it to detach from the jet. "That would be incredibly stupid." Tails finished as the chain gun hovered next to his outstretched hand.

This completely caught Shadow off guard. He made it obvious by nearly dropping his own gun. Seriously, how else would anyone react when they witness the weakest member of Team Sonic point a chain gun built for a fighter jet at them under his own power?

"How are you doing this?" The ebony hedgehog asked after finding his voice.

In response, Tails pointed to his chest with his free hand. "The source of the energy is what's keeping me alive. So that is why I can't let you have it." Tails explained, taking off the sunglasses and revealing his mismatched eyes.

Shadow's eyes slightly widened at this new piece of information. That, and how Tails' left eye had black sclera.

"Main System…."

In one fluid motion, Tails brushed his free hand on the jet, blue energy flowing through it and disassembling, the parts merging with Tails and creating his armor as he turned his whole body towards Shadow and Omega. The chain gun compressing and folding over his left shoulder as the rail gun folded over his right. His visor came to life as the rest of the parts covered his face, making an armored helmet. To finish it off, Tails swung both hands out, an energy blade extending from his forearms.

"….Activating Combat Mode."

Shadow took a step back at the sudden display of Tails' new power. Omega, though unable to display it, was surprised. He didn't expect something like this.

"So…." The armored fox started. "How would you proceed?"

It was at that moment, Alex walked in with a green colored cigar in his hand.

"Hey Tails, I was wondering if….." Alex trailed off as he saw the current situation in front of him. "Oh….."

Shadow just stared at Alex, figuring out how to proceed until Alex just walked away awkwardly. In that split second, Tails was suddenly between Shadow and Omega, an energy blade extended at the back of Shadow's head and Omega's chest plate, more likely where his core rested.

Tails had a sly grin as he stood between them, admiring the feeling of catching both of them off guard like this.

"So… how do you proceed now?"

* * *

**Bleh, short chapter after a long hiatus. I need to get myself in gear.**

**Also, if you didn't guess, the name of his act is about job hunting of course. **

**Another note, Silver training Nero on controlling his inner viral beast, I may or may not skip it. Yes he does train him, but I'm more likely not going to write it out. Unless everyone else wants me to. If so, I'll just submit it as a separate story.**


End file.
